This means that the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver are perfectly within their rights, as long as the punishment is one outlined in the organizations by-laws, to ban Donald Sterling for life for his racist comments made in private and taped without his consent, which in California would make them inadmissible in the court of law.
While Sterling’s remarks (Silver says that Sterling admitted to the voice on the tape as Sterling’s) were reprehensible, the question of punishment remains a tricky one. Sterling’s punishment does not just affect him, but it affects anyone who may have something to say that differs from what the NBA wants people to say.
Will players be banned from the court for using race hate language? Will fans be banned from arenas for the same reason? Perhaps, the most important question is “Will this ban lead to better race relations or to more subversive tactics used by those who are prejudiced?”
The only way that America will ever be able to reach a place of all children being able to join hands and sing “Free at last” is if people can have an open dialogue about race and what it means. Silver was put in an impossible decision, and he made the right one for the business of the NBA. Did he make the right one for society as a whole?
Edward James Olmos says "There's only one race"