But how about forcing him to sell the team? There’s the rub.

Silver has also recommended that NBA owners effectively force Sterling to sell the Clippers. The NBA has a procedure in place for this extraordinary action, but the procedure contains enough ambiguity that debate among owners is likely. Under article 13 of the league’s constitution, three fourths of the teams’ ownership groups can vote to terminate a franchise under certain conditions. The conditions are focused on financial matters, such as an owner unable to meet payroll or an owner implicated in financial impropriety. None of the listed conditions, SI.com is told, apply directly to the type of conduct committed by Sterling.

This article is written by Michael McCann, who is a Massachusetts attorney and the founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Recognizing that this is just his best estimate of what could happen, it’s a pretty interesting analysis. There are about a dozen “what-ifs” he cites, including the almost certain one that Sterling would sue the league the moment a majority of his fellow owners voted him out. From there it’s a crapshoot.