Punished for something that sterling would argue happened in private. Right. A lot of questions. How do you do that without hurting the team, which is in the middle of a championship run, they think, had he hoep hope. Its a great time for the nba, and there are stars on this team. Blake griffin, chris paul. Its a really unusual situation thats unprecedented. Nbc news has confirmed that Donald Sterling has been fined 5 million and has been suspended indefinitely. This is according a senior nba official. It looks as if they are going to take, as you were describing, a very stiff penalty against mr. Sterling. Well, the nba has never even suspended an owner for anything else. They fined them for yelling at the refs, things like that. This is really unprecedented when this happens. Clearly theyre saying to him we dont want you here, and the hope, i guess, is that he will in some way reach some kind of agreement to get rid of ownership of the team. Now, how does that happen . Unclear. I think the nba certainly wants to deal with this now in a very sharp and aggressive way, get through the playoff season to midjune or so and then deal with this more aggressively when the summertime comes and the league is essentially when after the season is over. You know, what a moment for the nba. What a moment for the country when this organization takes such a profound step to say to this man, you just cant do this. Yeah. You know, there have been other times when racism has been in the forefront, but to hear it so blatantly, i think clearly thats whats driving this. I think just about anybody who heard those tapes would be offended by what was on them. Yeah. Indeed. The nba finally taking action. We do now, again, know that they have suspended Donald Sterling indefinitely, fining hem fined 5 million. Bloo i sneed to hear a lot more. One of the demands of the union, its representative Kevin Johnson, was that we also get some answers as to why Donald Sterling has been coddled for so lodge as the last 30 years for an nba owner and why no action was taken during previous instances when it was revealed when he acted in a profoundly racist manner as a slum lord m Greater Los Angeles area, paying off the largest housing discrimination settlement in the history of the justice department. If adam silver is not willing to give some sort of accounting for why the nba has coddled this man for so long, then it does not meet the measure that the union is asking for, and it shouldnt frankly meet the measure that the public is asking for. Think about the message here, joy. The message theyre sending is, okay, you can treat ordinary working class people, black and brown people, like garbage, but, oh, no, how dare you offend Magic Johnson. Thats where we draw the line. The nba needs a harsher stance on this. The thing is that 5 million in the scheme of things, when you are talking about somebody who is worth considerably more than that, its not the biggest fine that could have been done. It is in terms of the history of the league there have been previous suspended mba owners. Glen taylor of the Minnesota Timberwolves for violating salary cap rules. Had a single season suspension. The team was fined approximate. 5 million. They lost five number one draft picks. You jerry bus, the former l. A. Lakers coach who was suspended in 2007 after he was convicted on a misdemeanor drunk driving charges. Two games. 25,000 fine. Are you saying you dont think this will sanitize things for the league. Obviously, i need to look at what theyre saying and i need to constituted where i this more, but just gut reaction it feels like theyre looking for a way to get this off the front pages as soon as possible. What i would like to see is actual steps taken by nba ownership and adam silver and my understanding is its in the constitution that they can do this, not to just suspend him indefinitely, but actually arrest control of the team from the Sterling Family, and that last part is important because his wife rochelle who i assume would be the person in charge at this point, shes also named in a lot of these housing discrimination suits throughout the 1990s and 2000s. That is an issue, and ron allen did bring this up. We had him on a moment ago. This idea of whether or not the team can still be wrestled out of his control. Michael mccann from Sports Illustrated wrote about this and said there is reportedly no language authorizing the nba to sell a team because of an owners hurtful remarks or embarrassing behavior, even if language could authorize a forced sale of the clippers. Nba owners would likely be reluctant to set the precedent of doing that to him. Do you know of anything in the rules . I mean, they arent secret. Theres a secret constitution. That could force him to sell, or do you think pressure will be brought to bear by other owners who even if he is suspended, still dont want this guy associated with the nba . Yeah. I mean, its so interesting because you can win playoff games or what not or lose playoff games, or that you are providing serious financial harm to the league, that these are legal stipulations that would allow them to actually arrest control of the team from you and put it on some sort of open market, but the obvious answer is the constitution is whatever the nba owners say it is. I mean, this isnt legal writ, this isnt doctrine, this isnt anything moses came down from mount sinai with. Its basically its not really about adam silver. Its are the other owners angry enough and frankly organized enough to say we dont want this guy in our club anymore. That would be a death blow for the ownership of Donald Sterling. Indeed. Stay right there. Were going to add jay williams, who is joining us on the phone. He is a retired nba player who has played for the Chicago Bulls as well as doouk universitys blue devils. Your aekz, sir, to the news that the nba will fine Donald Sterling 5 million and suspend him indefinitely. After knowing adam silver for a very long time, i think this is one of those steps in the process of a lot of steps in order to make his life extremely uncomfortable. I think its the right move. I also you know, you hear people whats the ultimate goal here from the players perspective . I think theres no room in nba for an owner that i think the players have a huge opportunity here to make a major statement. You talk about whats the best way to force the hand of a guy like adam silver to ebbing pedestrian it the process. We talk about for the owners they need 22 out of the 30 owners to vote, to revoke his rights to own a team. I think the way the players could get that done is by boycotting the game. By boycotting the game, that puts pressure on the nba, adam silver, and the owner because then all of a sudden you start to lose money. It puts added pressure on not only the nba, but everybody to expedite and move this process forward. There is thinking that the Civil Rights Act would protest because its based on an underlying charge of racism. Do you think the players need to not stand down here, not let this fine deter them from continuing to protest up to and including refusing to play . Absolutely. I would like to see them do that without question. Im always a little bit red sent to say what i think other people should do to protest in terms of risking their livelihoods, but i will say this. Its not just about players. Its about fans as well. I dont know i dont think fans should be going to the game. Nobody goes to games to look at Donald Sterling. For goodness sake, i dont think people would want to be paid to look at Donald Sterling. People go to a fwam to see the players. If the players walked off the court, the money stops, and that would be the kind of statement where absolutely jay williams is correct. 22 out of 30 owners would line up to be the first person to say lets arrest this team from his control. Yea, az former player, yourself, the pressure that the players are under is really unfair. Lets just face it. They didnt do anything wrong. They are now in the center of all this, but, again, they are the people that the fans are coming to see. Do you think its an unfair burden to put on the players, or should they continue to stand up to this guy because suspended or not, he still owns the team. I think there are always unfair burdens that come along with the responsibility of being a public figure, and i think this is a huge opportunity for somebody like chris paul who is in charge of the Players Union or as far as how the players saw it along with Kevin Johnson to make a Statement Like that. We didnt have to justify the right move politically or financially, and i think for all these players with chris paul being the head of this great league, he has a chance to make an ultimate statement that would essentially force the hand of the nba to impose the right sanction on Donald Sterling, which is ultimately to remove him from ownership status of the Los Angeles Clippers. I want to go back to ron allen, who is live outside where we will be watching for this press conference that adam silver will be holding. Ron, what about that . I mean, there is still this does not have a feeling of finality. You now know what the penalty is going to be, but there is. In the beginning, not an end, or the middle perhaps. I think your guesses are right that the players are going to step up and try to do things to try and put pressure on sterling to step aside, to give up control of his team. Basically you see what the owners will do. You know, theyre sort of a wild card in this situation, but the bottom line is that if this starts to hurt the nba financially, if there are boycott fz games, if there are other public reactions that are negative to this whole thing, demanding that sterling step aside, im sure the other owners will come together more quickly. Would i think because of this you must step accede. Youre suspended indefinitely, and they must give up ownership of the team. Its a fairly high bar, but i think theres been such universal condemnation of sterling, and he has this checkered past that even though these lawsuits were settled for millions of dollars and the elgin baylor lawsuit didnt find the the jury did not find for him, there are still all these other indications and as someone has said, the nba constitution is what the owners say it is. Theres really no precise legality here. This is all about the nbas future. Its ability to continue to earn enormous amounts of revenue. Its public image. Based on all those things, yes, i think m coming months, again, the playoffs will go into june. Once thats over, there will be more of a cry to try to remove this man many some way. Thats unchartered territory. Thats unprecedented have that happen to someone like sterling. I want to remind all of our viewers that nbc news has confirmed that Donald Sterling, owner of the l. A. Clippers, has been suspended indefinitely. He has been fined 5 million. This according a senior nba official. I want to go back to you. Finding a guy who is worth 1. 9 billion, number 975 on forbes worlds billionaires list, a team that is worth 575 million with 128 million in revenue. Is that going to have a sense of finality or is this drumbeat going to continue until this man no longer owns a team m National Basketball association . Its not going to have finality for any of the players, nor for any fans who are thinking about this in any way thats conscience. Were talking about Donald Sterling. Lets also remember this is somebody who paid 13 million for this franchise. 3 million down, 10 million on layaway. He could probably get 700 million for it now easy without blinking. Even if he is forced to sell, no one should weep for Donald Sterling. Its a drop in the bucket. Just to get back to that boycott question, i just think we should remember that just last year the young men from grambling boycotted. There is courage out there in the recent past. Actually, never mind. This is adam sell ver, and he is taking the mike. Shortly after the release of an odd wroe recording this past saturday morning of a conversation that allegedly included clippers owner Donald Sterling, the nba commenced an investigation which among other things included an interview of mr. Sterling. That investigation is now complete. The central findings of the investigation are that the man whose voice is heard on the recording and on a second recording from the same conversation that was released on sunday is mr. Sterling and that the hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of mr. Sterling. The views expressed by mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an nba owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage. Sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principles of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse, multicultural and multiethnic league. I am personally distraught that the views of mr. Sterling came from within an institution that has historically taken such a leadership role in matters of race relations. Ask caused current and former players, coaches, fans, and partners of the nba to question their very association with the league. To them and pioneers of the game like earl lloyd, chuck cooper, sweetwater cliftton, the great bill russell and particularly Magic Johnson i apologize. Accordingly, Effective Immediately i am banning mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers Organization or the nba. Mr. Sterling may not attend any nba games or practices. He may not be present at any clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or player personnel decision involving the team. He will also be barred from attending nba board of governors meetings or participating in any other league activity. I am also fining mr. Sterling 2. 5 million, the maximum amount allowed under the nba constitution. These funds will be donated to organizations dedicated to antidiscrimination intolerance efforts that will be jointly selected by the nba and its Players Association. As for mr. Sterlings ownership interest in the clippers, i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to insure that that happens. This has been a painful moment for all members of the nba family. I appreciate the support and understanding of our players during this process. And i am grateful for doc rivers, Union President chris paul, and mayor Kevin Johnson of sacramento who has been acting as the players representative in this manner. We stand together in condemning mr. Sterlings views. They simply have no place in the nba. Thank you, and ill take any questions. Do you or any of year emissaries have any clue whether mr. Sterling will abbing wee esto your to sell the team, or do you have a fight . I have no idea. Next question right here, rachel. From polling the owners that you have spoken to, what right do you have to i didnt poll the owners. I spoke to several owners. I have their full support. On the right, brian. Adam bryant from the associated press. What kind of authority do they have to force a sale . The owners have the authority subject to threequarters vote of the ownerships groups of the partners to remove him as an owner. Hi, im lisa ger era with inside edition. The word you used specifically was outrage. You said that you were personally outraged. Yet, many people believe that they are outraged that for years people have known that this man is a racist, slum lord, and the nba hasnt done anything until today. Can you please answer why . I cant speak to past actions other than to say that when specific evidence was brought to the nba, we acted. Over here. Second row on the left. Joe with fox news, the kelly file. Should someone lose their team for remarks shared in private . Is this a slippery slope . Whether or not these remarks were initially shared in private, they are now public, and they represent his views. Fifth row in the middle. Tim. Lets get a microphone there please. Tim, new york post. Adam, what was the process to come into this decision over the last couple of days, and when did you decide that this was the appropriate action to take . I ultimately decided this morning that this was the appropriate action and the process beginning saturday morning when this first tape when this tape was first released was to a point an investigator. It was david anneders from the watell lipton firm. He conducted a series of interviews. Some by phone, some in person. He concluded his investigation late last night. Seventh row on the left. Jeff. Lets give the microphone to jeff please. No. Jeff, right there. Seventh row on left. Jeff. Jeff, usa today. Adam, you said you would encourage owners to force the sale of the clippers. When will that action take place . Is. The process will begin immediately. We will most likely include a Standing Committee of the nba or the equivalent of our executive committee, our advisoriry finance committee. Ive had plenty of discussion with glen tailor, who is our chairman of the board and the leader of the advisory finance committee, and we will begin that process immediately. Third row on the end. Howard. Howard beck, reporter. Adam, in your conversation with sterling, did he own up to this immediately . Was it only after you guys had to come up with some sort of proof . What, if anything, has he expressed approaching remorse, regret, anything . Whats his sentiment at this point . Mr. Sterling acknowledged it was his voice on the tape, and he has not expressed to me directly any other views. Okay. Well go right here, please. Andrew rosario, rise tv. What message do you have nor the clippers and their fans and their fan base in terms of moving forward from this point on . My message to the clippers fans is this league is far bigger than any one owner, any one coach, any one player. This institution has been around for a long time, and it will stand for a long time. I have complete confidence in doc rivers, in the basketball management