The headlines are the whole issue. That’s why they want to get rid of him. They’ve known about his racial problems for a long time, it’s been one of the NBA’s open secrets. But it never made headlines, so it wasn’t a problem. Doesn’t matter if he said it in private, it became public, worse it became FRONT PAGE. Damaged the league.
Sterling would be the one to press charges, and with all his excuse mongering he doesn’t seem to be doing a good job of waiting for things to go away. At this point he’s the only one still talking, if he’d shutup it would have gone away already... at least until the next owner’s meeting.
Remember they’re already estranged, technically he owns half and she owns half. Which makes things complicated. But the MLB already navigated similar waters with the Dodgers, I’m sure the NBA can borrow some lawyers. Also remember a lot of the race problems Sterling has had were actually the wife’s activities, many of which started making headlines when all this was roiling. So it’s not outside the realm to think if the owners vote one Sterling out they’ll vote them both out, they’ve both now generated headlines embarrassing to the league.
Well, maybe we’ll find out after the play-offs. Nothing is going to happen until then. ;) If at all.