[quote=livinincali][quote=spdrun]This isn’t the government, though. The team is subject to NBA regulations if it wants to do business with the NBA (play against other teams in the league). I suspect that he signed some sort of morals clause when he bought the team and kept it part of the league.
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What if it was the HOA. You belong to an HOA it comes out that you said some particularly nasty things about a gay neighbor. Does the HOA have the rights to fine you. Force you to sell your house if 75% of the members vote you out.
I understand the NBAs reaction, they needed to appeal to popular opinion. The problem is it becomes a slippery slope. How long before the NBA owners don’t like Mark Cuban’s comments about something and force him to sell.[/quote]
I think there is a point missing in this whole conversation. The NBA owns trademarks/servicemarks, which it allows others (such as Sterling) to use under defined terms. There are ALWAYS terms in trademark licenses that allow the license to be terminated if the licensee (in this case, Sterling) brings bad PR to the mark itself. Similarly, if a McDonalds franchise owner started coming to work dressed like Adolf Hitler, McDonalds would have the right to pull his license (with certain limitations). WHY is everyone getting so excited about someone having a contract that they AGREED to enforced against them?
