Donald Sterling, the (soon to be former) owner of the Los Angeles Clippers has been banned for life from the NBA due to his racist comments.

TMZ Sports first released the audio recording of a conversation between Sterling and his then-girlfriend V. Stiviano. In the recording, Sterling made extremely insensitive and racist comments, including that he does not want black people attending Clippers games.

As expected, these comments were not warmly received by the media, members of the Clippers organization, or NBA players.

Before their game 4 loss against the Golden State Warriors, members of the Clippers shed their warm ups at center court revealing inside out shooting shirts.

This silent protest of shedding their team name and logo (they just so happened to wear their alternate jerseys that said “Los Angeles” on the front instead of “Clippers”) was the players way of saying they will not support an owner who has such racist opinions.

The NBA launched an investigation against Donald Sterling and on Tuesday Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the NBA for life and fined him the maximum amount of 2.5 million dollars. He also began the process of finding new ownership for the Clippers, and hopes to get the support of 3/4’s of other NBA owners so they can remove Sterling from his position and force him to sell the franchise.

Players, coaches, members of the media, and people all around the world celebrated Silver’s decision. This was his first major hurdle as new NBA Commissioner, and he showed the league would not stand for such actions.

One would hope this lifetime ban would mean the end of the Sterling saga for the Clippers, but it could be just beginning. Sterling has no intention of letting this team go and will probably fight the ruling, the sad part is that he probably has a case. Sterling’s opinions were expressed in a private conversation where it seems he does not know he was being recorded.

Another thought to keep in mind is that Sterling is being punished for his opinions, but doesn’t thet First Amendment protect freedom of speech?People may not like his opinions or the way he expressed them, but doesn’t he have a right to have his opinion?

Outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban said that “What Donald said was wrong. It was abhorrent. There’s no place for racism in the NBA, any business I’m associated with, and I don’t want to be associated with people who have that position.”

Cuban would go on to say “But at the same time, that’s a decision I make. I think you’ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It’s a very, very slippery slope.”

A very slippery slope indeed, and it seems Mr. Sterling will do anything to keep himself from falling.