--- title: Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban | TIME description: Sports Illustrated's Maggie Gray and TIME's Sean Gregory analyze NBA commIssioner Adam Silver's decision to expel Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling because of his racist comments. canonical: https://time.com/video/BOSMpqmw/ og:title: Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban og:description: Sports Illustrated's Maggie Gray and TIME's Sean Gregory analyze NBA commIssioner Adam Silver's decision to expel Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling because of his racist comments. og:url: https://time.com/video/BOSMpqmw/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BOSMpqmw/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban twitter:description: Sports Illustrated's Maggie Gray and TIME's Sean Gregory analyze NBA commIssioner Adam Silver's decision to expel Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling because of his racist comments. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BOSMpqmw/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban [Watch (HLS stream): Breaking Down Donald Sterling's Lifetime Ban](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BOSMpqmw.m3u8) (3:54)  _Published 2014-04-29. Sports Illustrated's Maggie Gray and TIME's Sean Gregory analyze NBA commIssioner Adam Silver's decision to expel Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling because of his racist comments._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:35 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Donald Sterling Takes the Stand in Clippers Case](/video/eFx7V1nY/) ### Donald Sterling Takes the Stand in Clippers Case [Will Donald Sterling Give Up Clippers Or Fight?](/video/COjfMASH/) ### Will Donald Sterling Give Up Clippers Or Fight? [NBA Commissioner Announces Ban and Fine for Donald Sterling](/video/6JYcG5vn/) ### NBA Commissioner Announces Ban and Fine for Donald Sterling --- ## Transcript It will be a lifetime ban for Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. Also a $ 2. 5 million fine. That is the maximum allowed under the NBA Constitution. Maggie Gray here from Sports Illustrated along with Sean Gregory from TIME. We saw a swift and decisive action by the Commissioner. What was your reaction? Yeah, I, he was stern, strong. Judging as performance art, he came across great, decisive. I thought it was gonna be indefinite suspension. A lifetime ban is, is the same thing. There's, you know, you can always reverse a lifetime ban. But it's a stronger, a stronger language. The semantical message here, is that Adam Silver does not want Do, Donald Sterling near the NBA. And he's saying today he's gonna do everything in his power, to keep him away from the NBA forever. Although Adam Silver said he's not sure if Donald Sterling will acquiesce to this announcement. You also need 3 4ths of the other owners, to band together, to eventually force Donald Sterling to sell his team. Right. Are we at the start of perhaps a lot of litigation here? Yeah po, possibly. Now the 3 4ths is interesting. Mark Cuban has said, come out and said that there's a slippery slope about forcing sale, because what, you know, the behavior here is abhorrent. But wasn't illegal and, and so if an owner you know, gets a DWI. Does something you know, physically, almost physically harms somebody. What kind of penalties are they subject to? So, some owners might be worried about that 3 4ths vote, about forcing the sale. However, Adam Silver answered that, he has the authority to, to, to still say that Donald, Sterling is banned from running the team. Although he can nominally own the team. Now, the thing about it is if Donald Sterling's forced to sell the team. After all his abhorrent behavior. He's gonna cash in. Mm- hm. And he, and he bought this team for $ 12 million. If he sells the Clippers, the Bucks just went for $ 550 million. So Los Angeles Clippers is gonna go for a lot more than that. So in a sad way, Donald Sterling could wind up winning too. Adam Silver believes that he will be able to get the votes needed to force Donald Sterling to sell the team, but he was asked several different times why the NBA had never done things in the past to Donald Sterling, considering a very well documented checkered past. How do you think he handled those questions? He handled them, he passed the buck a little bit. Which is his right, he wasn't the Commissioner at the time. Although, he was very involved. He was- Deputy Commissioner. The number two guy for a long time. In this case it's, hearing is believing. You know what I mean? There were cases that were settled. and, and, and, you know, I mean, he brought the Elgin Baylor case, where the racial discrimination part was thrown out of court. So what grounds do you have? Here, you have a tape. You have his voice saying these are boring things, and, in this day and age it's, you know, you hear the voice. It goes worlwide instantly, that's kinda all you need. And you go from being an owner of a team that contends to National Championship, to being banned for life, lit, you know, almost over night. How do you think the players will respond to this new decree that Donald Sterling has been banned for life? I mean, I think they have to be thrilled , if you're a Clipper player. I mean, I know they thought about boycotting game four. If they you know, if they would've bo, boycotted game four, it would've sent this unbelievable social message. but, that's, that's a lot to expect for players. You know, they're trying to, they're trying to win an NBA championship. That game, they weren't into that game. I spoke to some people who've watched them all year. You could tell they were playing, but not really playing, they were distracted, you go home now, game five tonight. I mean you can, you can feel them getting fired up for this. You know, they got, what more can you really ask for? I mean, from Adam Silver, he did everything he could, he could do in his powers to remove him now. You can say that he should have been, tried to, had tried to have been removed years ago. What's done is done. So, if I, if I'm the Clippers players, I'm sure the response is gonna be pretty positive. Donald Sterling, banned for life as owner of the Clippers. Sean Gregory from TIME, thanks so much. 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