NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the punishment for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling at a press conference today at NBA headquarters in New York City.
As we previously reported, Sterling is under fire for allegedly making racist comments in a phone call to his girlfriend V. Stiviano.
After an investigation conducted by the NBA, Sterling announced that it was indeed Sterling’s voice on the phone call. Silver announced that he is banning Sterling for life from the L.A. Clippers. Sterling was also fined $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed under the NBA Constitution. Silver added that he will attempt to force the sale of the team.
The racist comments were made public by TMZ and include Sterling telling Stiviano, who is black and Mexican, not to bring black people to Clippers games. Sterling also told his girlfriend that he had a problem with her posting a photo of herself with Magic Johnson to her Instagram account.
