The NBA‘s Clippers Team owner, Donald Sterling, no longer owns his own team. Shame. NBA commissioner Adam Silver made this call and banned poor old Donald from his own team because apparently Donald is racist and Adam is not.

Let us explain: Sterling made some pretty outlandishly racist comments, which were then recorded and published by TMZ over the weekend. What he actually did was give his girlfriend a pretty rough time for what she did with Magic Johnson. The girlfriend posted a picture of herself and Magic onto Instagram and Sterling reacted by telling her that bringing black people to basketball games is just not cricket.

Please brace yourself for Sterlings exact choice of words. The recording reveals him saying, ““It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” You can sleep with [them]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”

You can probably imagine what a national bloody fire storm this has caused. Especially considering who actually makes basketball, well, basketball. It sure isn’t a huge bunch of white people dribbling balls around the court. On the contrary. Donald might have been a little ironic in his chastising of his girlfriend, if anything.

Since Adam Silver became commissioner of the NBA, he hasn’t as yet made a decision as huge as this. Adam basically went all out on this one. His decision was not light by any means. One could even speculate that the comments uttered by Sterling might have come at an expedient time for Silver, especially since it gave him the opportunity to exercise some moral standing and showcase his his sense of morality to the entire world. Which is a great thing to have if you are commissioner of the NBA.

Here is the exact punishment that Sterling doled out: A LIFETIME ban from being the active owner and participant of his own team, The Los Angeles Clippers.  Sterling will be banned  from attending games, practices, league owner meetings, or participating in team or league business in any way. Oh, and he has to cough up $2.5 million dollars in fines. This is hilarious though, because Sterlings estimated net worth is said to be $1.9 BILLION. The  $2.5 million he is being asked to pay is the change lying at the bottom of his girlfriends handbag.

For more on what is transpiring in this epic saga of racism in basketball, please click here.

[SOURCE] Time