Even if they have (and I wouldn't take your word for it), the lynching still started long before that.
Doesn't matter what he said. I don't care if he went on national TV and said I can't stand these savages, but it's profitable, so I put up with them. Can the sponsers dump him? Ceratinly. Can the players themselves say screw you whitey, I think I'm "injured" and can't play for you. If they want.Fans leave in droves? No problem. Call him a neandrethal publicly. Sure you can. I just can't get behind fining him for his speech, and I'm especially concerned about privacy issues, and of course the obvious double standards at play.
Here's NBA commissioner Adam Silver at his press conference. Nice shade of lipstick he's wearing, isn't it?
If I was Sterling's lawyer, I would sue the NBA for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. His "GF" now apparently claims he said he was senile. Dementia is clearly a disability. Talking nonsense is one of the symptoms. The league is punishing him for getting an illmess. How unPC. The GF was clearly trying to coax damaging statements out of him. If, as now seems likely, she was planning on using them to hold him up for a payoff, that is clearly extortion, a serious felony. Another possibility is she was in cahoots with Magic Johnson or others to force a cut-rate sale of the team...to a minority of course. And who better than Magic?