No it came from Sterling’s behavior being caught on tape. It doesn’t matter if he thought it was private, it doesn’t matter if his girlfriend broke the law making it not private. A tape came out of HIM saying things that generated bad press, so indeed he broke the no bad press rule. Not on purpose, but most folks generating bad press don’t do so on purpose, doesn’t change the fact that HE is the one that said the things that damaged the shield.
By your argument, if he engaged in kinky sex and someone taped it without his knowledge and broadcast it and it embarrassed the team and the NBA, he would be responsible, too.
It just doesn’t hold. He was a victim of a crime, used specifically to shame him and the NBA completely outside of any defense or contextual explanation, in the court of public opinion. And that situation, that criminally victimized him, is being invoked against him to support a contact provision. Sorry, it won’t hold. His lawyers are going to sure the crap out of the NBA for exactly what they are trying to sanction him for - the effects of the bad PR he is receiving at their hands without due process or defense or criminal actions being taken into account.
And he will win.
Don’t confuse them with the facts.