(CNN) -- After slapping Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling with a lifetime ban from pro basketball for racist remarks that were leaked online, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he would do "everything in my power" to force Sterling to sell the franchise. Here's a primer on what may happen next.
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Who is V. Stiviano? What's the process?
Three-quarters of the owners of the 30 NBA teams would have to agree to force an owner to sell, Silver said. He did not lay out a detailed timetable for action but said the league would start using its advisory finance committee to bring the issue before the owners "immediately."
Do they have the votes?
As of Tuesday evening, more than 20 of the NBA's 30 teams had issued statements of support for Silver, but whether that would translate into a vote to push out a fellow owner wasn't certain. Silver said he hadn't polled the owners but added, "I fully expect to get the support I need."
Wait a minute, can they do that?
They can. But Gabe Feldman, the director of the Sports Law Center at Tulane University, said the drastic move usually involves "extreme" circumstances, such as an owner's financial collapse "or maybe gambling or fixing games." He questioned whether owners would vote to remove one of their own "based on something they don't like," possibly creating a precedent that might be used against them one day.
The owners may agree that Sterling's comments were awful, Feldman told CNN. "The question is, do racially insensitive and abhorrent remarks made privately rise to the circumstances necessary for this vote to happen?"
Is there some other way?
Feldman said the other NBA owners might be able to persuade Sterling to sell without a vote, noting that the Clippers owner stands to make a whopping profit on a team he purchased three decades ago.
"He may get a lot of money from the sale, but I think it will allow the NBA to shift their force back onto the product on the court," Feldman said.
Does Sterling have any recourse if owners vote him out?
The NBA's suspension and $2.5-million fine for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling sent shockwaves through the sports world, but it's not the first time a league has cracked down on a team owner. Suspensions and hefty fines are among the toughest weapons leagues have when owners behave badly. Here's a look at some team owners who faced fines and other punishments in the past: 
Before the fine against Sterling was announced, CNN's partner website Bleacher Report had dubbed Mark Cuban the "King of NBA fines. The notoriously vocal Dallas Mavericks owner has been forced to pay more than $1.8 million in fines since he bought the team in 2000, many of them for colorful language and criticism of referees. The league slapped him with a $500,000 fine in 2002 after he criticized Director of Officials Ed Rush, saying he "wouldn't hire him to manage a Dairy Queen." Cuban has said he donates money to charity every time the NBA fines him. 
Former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended from Major League Baseball in 1993 and 1996 for several controversial comments, among them racial epithets against players. In a 1996 interview with ESPN, she said this about Adolf Hitler: "Everybody knows that he was good at the beginning, but he just went too far." She was forced to sell her controlling interest of the Reds in 1999, ending a stint that began in the mid-1980s. 
Before the announcement about Sterling's suspension, Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was the only owner suspended in the NBA in 68 years. The league suspended Taylor in 2000 for a season after the Timberwolves made a secret deal with a star player to circumvent salary cap rules. Now, Taylor is chairman of the NBA board of governors, which Commissioner Adam Silver has asked to vote on stripping Sterling's ownership of the Clippers. 
The NFL commissioner suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. for his role in a racketeering scandal tied to riverboat casino licenses. DeBartolo pleaded guilty in 1998 to felony charges of failing to report an extortion case, according to Bleacher Report. His plea deal drew the ire of the league, and by 2000, he was forced to cede control of the team to his sister. 
As former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's bitter divorce became a cloud over the franchise, his financial turmoil forced Major League Baseball to take over the day-to-day operations of the team in 2011. League Commissioner Bud Selig accused McCourt of "looting" the club of $190 million to fund an extravagant lifestyle. McCourt filed for bankruptcy later that year. During bankruptcy proceedings, McCourt agreed to sell the team under a bidding process. 
The late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon in 1974. He was banned for life in 1990 after paying a gambler $40,000 to get damaging information about a player, but Major League Baseball reinstated him three years later. 
The NBA said Miami Heat owner Micky Arison had been fined in 2011 for posting about the league's collective bargaining process on Twitter. The amount of the fine was not disclosed, but several media reports said it was $500,000. 
The NBA slapped Aubrey McClendon, partial owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder, with a $250,000 fine in 2007 after he told an Oklahoma newspaper that he hoped to move the team, then known as the Seattle SuperSonics, to Oklahoma. 
The NBA fined former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss $25,000 and suspended him for two games in 2007 after his conviction on a misdemeanor drunk driving charge. Buss died in 2013. 
The outspoken CNN founder and former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner was suspended for a year in 1977 for negotiating a deal with a player who was under contract to play for the San Francisco Giants. Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
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Team owners behaving badly He could go to court, and Feldman predicted the issue would end up there. But CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the odds of Sterling winning a case "seem basically zero."
"This is not the government enforcing a penalty. This is not something where you have the Constitution involved. This is simply a contract," Toobin said. "There is a contract between all the owners and the NBA, and the powers of the commissioner and the power of the other owners are laid out there."
Could he somehow keep a hand on the team?
The ban imposed Tuesday prevents Sterling from playing any role in the management of the Clippers. He can't go to games, to practices, to team offices or facilities or to any NBA functions. But asked whether his wife, Rochelle, or other members of his family could remain, Silver said no decisions had been made.
"This ruling applies specifically to Donald Sterling, and Donald Sterling's conduct only," he said.
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