Nearly three weeks after banning him for life, the NBA charged Donald Sterling with damaging the league and set up a hearing that could terminate his ownership of the Clippers.

The league on Monday announced Sterling’s comments regarding African-Americans and minorities over the past several weeks “provide grounds for termination under several provisions of the NBA constitution and related agreements.”

That constitution gives Sterling the right to appear and defend himself before the NBA Board of Governors during a special hearing on June 3. If the league’s other owners sustain the charge with a three-fourths majority vote, Sterling will be forced to sell a franchise he has owned since 1981.

The 80-year-old also has the right to respond to the league by May 27. Board of Governors chairman and Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor will preside over the June hearing.

“Mr. Sterling’s actions and positions significantly undermine the NBA’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion; damage the NBA’s relationship with its fans; harm NBA owners, players and Clippers team personnel; and impair the NBA’s relationship with marketing and merchandising partners, as well as with government and community leaders,” the league said in a statement. “Mr. Sterling engaged in other misconduct as well, including issuing a false and misleading press statement about this matter.”

TMZ first published Sterling’s comments in late April and released audio of him telling female friend V. Stiviano not to associate with African-Americans and not to bring them to his games. He even specified former NBA star Magic Johnson, with whom Stiviano had posed for a photo. Several other audio clips of Sterling were leaked to various media outlets.

He also injured his own image with a widely panned interview on CNN last week. During a two-part segment with Anderson Cooper that aired last Monday and Wednesday, Sterling admitted his comments were wrong and apologized, but added Stiviano baited him into saying something that did not reflect his true feelings.

Sterling also used the opportunity to attack Johnson and accused the Lakers legend and Dodgers co-owner of trying to force a sale so he could buy the Clippers. He called Johnson a poor role model for children in citing the NBA Hall of Famer’s HIV-positive status and alleging he and other African-Americans did not do enough to help their own communities.

In a separate CNN interview, Johnson refuted Sterling’s accusations and said the Clippers owner is “living in the stone ages.”

“I just feel sorry for him,” Johnson told Cooper. “I really do. It’s just sad.”

The NBA likely will argue Sterling violated Article 13(d) of its constitution, which states any owners who “fail or refuse to fulfill its contractual obligations to the Association, its Members, Players, or any other third party in such a way as to affect the Association or its Members adversely” may be subject to termination. Sterling reportedly signed past moral and ethical contracts with the league.

Even if the league comes up with a three-fourths majority vote, Sterling is expected to drag the case out in court. His attorney, noted antitrust litigator Maxwell Blecher, wrote a letter telling the NBA his client had done nothing wrong and will not pay the $2.5 million fine that accompanied his lifetime ban.

Sterling is the only league-approved controlling owner of the Clippers, but his wife Shelly Sterling has vowed to fight for her 50 percent share in the franchise. The NBA, intent on ousting both, said on May 11 that under its constitution the termination of a controlling interest also dissolves any other ownership interests.

“Based on our initial assessment, we continue to believe there is no lawful basis for stripping Shelly Sterling of her 50 percent ownership interest in the Clippers,” Shelly Sterling’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, said in a statement Monday. “She is the innocent, estranged spouse. We also continue to hope that we can resolve this dispute with the NBA for the good of all constituencies.”

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©2014 the Daily News (Los Angeles)

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