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NBA owners took their first concrete step towards booting Donald Sterling from their ranks after the disgraced real estate tycoon's racist remarks.
 Hours after the league's advisory/finance committee held a meeting to discuss NBA commissioner Adam Silver's recommendation that Sterling be forced to sell the team, reports surfaced that the 80-year-old Sterling is battling cancer.
ESPN.com said unnamed sources had confirmed Sterling's illness, first reported by the
New York Post.

 On Tuesday, Silver banned Sterling for life from all league activities and fined him US$2.5 million over racially charged comments he made to his girlfriend that caused a furore within basketball and beyond after they were aired at the weekend.
 "This afternoon the advisory/finance committee met via conference call to discuss the process for termination of Donald T. Sterling's ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers," NBA executive vice-president Mike Bass said. 
 "The committee unanimously agreed to move forward as expeditiously as possible and will reconvene next week."
 A move to force Sterling to sell would require the approval of three-quarters of the other 29 NBA owners, and Silver said on Tuesday that he was confident of gaining the votes needed.
 Sterling snapped up the Clippers for US$12 million in 1981. The club is now worth at least US$575 million.
 A swarm of high-profile potential buyers has surfaced, although Sterling could tie things up if he chooses to challenge any NBA action in court.
 Under NBA rules, before the league can force him to sell Sterling must be presented with written charges and given time to respond.
 Silver would then convene the board of governors, which would vote after hearing evidence in the case.
 While the NBA began to pick its way through the process, fallout continued outside of basketball.
 The president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP resigned amid questions about the civil rights organisation's relationship with Sterling.
 Leon Jenkins had announced this week that the group was dropping plans to present Sterling with a lifetime achievement award and would be returning donations Sterling had made to the organisation.
 Nevertheless, questions lingered about the chapter's ties to Sterling, who had previously faced allegations he discriminated against black, Hispanic and Korean tenants at some of his rental properties.
 Clippers coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers has told his players to expect the affair to follow them no matter how far they go in the play-offs.
 "It's not going anywhere. And you've just got to embrace that," Rivers said. "That's just part of this year's play-offs for us.
 The team missed out on a chance to wrap up a first-round victory over the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, California, falling 100-99. The defeat means the Clippers will host the Warriors in a decisive game seven tomorrow morning (Hong Kong time). 
 "I think we're getting closer to being able to play basketball," Rivers said. "The discussion will be here and that's fine by us. Our guys have been around it long enough now and they'll deal with it and put it in its right place."
 Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the woman to whom Sterling was talking to when he made the racist remarks said that the hour-long conversation was taped by mutual agreement last September and provided to a friend for safekeeping, who then leaked it to celebrity gossip website TMZ.
V. Stiviano sent two snippets of the conversation, recorded in her Los Angeles duplex, to a friend who released them without her permission, lawyer Siamak Nehoray said. He would not identify the friend.
 Nehoray said she sent snippets of the conversation recorded on her phone electronically to her friend for safekeeping in case anything happened, but only two went through, Nehoray said.
 He would not elaborate on what prompted her to send the recordings.
 "She's a young girl thrown in the middle of this thing, unwillingly," Nehoray said. 
"She didn't release the tape. She gave it to somebody for safe keeping. It was unfortunate that it was released. It's a lot to deal with."


First moves made to oust Sterling

Reports have surfaced that 80-year-old Donald Sterling is battling cancer. Photo: AP

Leon Jenkins resigned as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP amid questions over the group's relationship with Donald Sterling. Jenkins had earlier said that Sterling would not be receiving a lifetime achievement award for promoting civil rights. Photo: AP

Clippers guard Jamal Crawford shoots as the team lost 100-99 to the Warriors to take their play-off series to game seven. Photo: USA Today Sports

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NBA holds meeting to discuss future of Clippers owner, banned after race storm; fallout continues as NAACP leader resigns over furore
