I'm sure 100% of my fellow Americans (and possibly several others) have heard about this story ad nauseum, but it brings up an interesting debate.

Here's the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/sp...-clippers.html

Cliffnotes: Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, had a private conversation between him and an extra-marital "female acquaintance" recorded, wherein he talks about how much it bothers him that she's tweeting pictures of herself "associating with black people." The recording was leaked to entertainment news. He is now being forced to sell the team, has received a lifetime ban from the NBA and was fined a humorous $2.5M (the maximum they could fine him).
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So did NBA Commissioner--the confusingly named Adam Silver; you can't make this stuff up; actually, you could if you were a really cheesy comic book writer--do the right thing?

The easy answer is that this guy is a piece of shit and good riddance to bad rubbish. Sterling's comments apparently didn't come out of nowhere; he's been involved in various lawsuits for racial discrimination and such. Even just from a pure practical perspective, this is a win-win-win. This caused such an outrage, that a Sterling-owned Clippers team was going to face heavy boycotts, so forcing Sterling to sell the team now with everyone giddy over the NBA's decision will get the highest salvage.

The tough question is can the NBA (and, by extension, other politically agnostic, nationally headlining organizations) ban people and force the sale of their property over some views expressed in a private conversation? It's a central American tenant that what you believe is what you believe, what you do in your personal life is fine with me so long as it doesn't affect your job performance, etc. Of course, the constitution doesn't apply to the NBA's operations, but it seems distinctly unAmerican to "fire" someone for making an off-handed comment in a private conversation. (And as far as anyone can tell, it's not within the powers of the commissioner to oust an owner over something so irrelevant from the NBA).

Thoughts?