RE: He owns a franchise, which isn’t private property.
Not sure if that is accurate.
If you own a franchise, you are buying the use of a NAME ( which in a sense is WORTH the money you invest in ).
So, if you, by your actions TAINT the name of the franchise, the franchise owners have the right to DISSOCIATE their name from you.
BUT, they do not have the right to take away your SHARE of the money you put in.
So, if you put in $12 Million initially for your share of the franchise ( What Sterling put in originally over 30 years ago ), and the VALUE of the franchise is now worth 40 times your investment, I believe by law, the franchise can FORCE you not to use their name, but they cannot force you to offload your share at less than market value.
So, I believe BY LAW, the NBA can tell Sterling that he cannot use be a franchisee of the NBA ( i.e. use the NBA name for his team ). This means Sterling CAN BE PRESSURED to sell his share of the franchise. BUT ONLY AT MARKET VALUE.
I think the NBA Commissioner tainted it more than Sterling did, how much is his fine?
The Commissioner is going to cause the NBA to go through a big lawsuit over an illegal recording. Since the recording probably cannot be used to support their claim, it will be interesting to see the result.
The only person in all this who says anything about Sterling selling at less than market value is you. He’s not going to sell at less than market, and he definitely won’t sell for less than he paid. There’s no reason for you to keep harping on those things that simply will not happen.