Sounds like we found out this morning (the press conference is either still in progress or wrapped, as I type this) exactly what the maximum penalty under the current NBA constitution is.
Donald Sterling is, at least on an official level, banned from the National Basketball Association for life and fined $2.5 million for his comments, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has confirmed the voice on the recording is Sterling's.
OK.
But now here's the rub: What does "banned for life" actually mean?
As of the moment, Donald Sterling is still the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. However, Silver says he will go to the remaining members of the NBA Board of Governors and he WILL be trying to force Sterling out of his position as owner -- a position which may or may not be allowed, according to various people who have read NBA documents on the subject.
The exact words from the press conference were as follows:
"Effective immediately, I am banning Mr. Sterling -- for life -- from any association with the Clippers organization, or the NBA."
He IS banned from attending games and practices, et. al. That basically takes away Clippers games as opportunities to kiss his foot/ring/ass, OK... Banned from all league business.
But it appears to me that this penalty is already removal as the owner of the Clippers.
Because, as much as social media is lauding the decision (and it well should, as a function of necessity for the league to proceed, even in this year's playoffs!!), doesn't this decision already create a de facto seizure of the team by the NBA?
Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't still being the putative owner of the team be an association with the team and the NBA?
Wouldn't still profiting from being the putative owner of the Clippers (even banned from the NBA as persona non grata) still be a formal association with the team and with the NBA?
Who gets control of the Clippers? I've read one report that posits his wife gets control of the team.
He technically has no legal voice on the team and with the league, and I get all that. But, as much of a history as he has racked up and as much as kicking this vindictive bitch out of the league has been coming for decades, do you not think he didn't prepare for the day that it would attempt to be taken down?
Do you think that, as much of a fraud and a sham that Donald Sterling has been over the course of a good 30 years or so, that he isn't prepared to subvert this somehow?
And what, short of arrest, is going to stop him?
Silver actually did need to go further, frankly. He needed the NBA to seize the team and take it under the league's operations on an indefinite basis, leaving all assets in material escrow until the courts can determine how they can be legally distributed, sans ongoing expenses such as salaries and what have you.
The league is getting sued over this. The stark language given indicates that Sterling can no longer own the team, as of now. How this gets around the current by-laws, etc., I don't know.
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