Jeanie Buss says Adam Silver showed ‘great leadership’ in Sterling ban

Lakers governor Jeanie Buss joined the growing number of NBA owners who agreed with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s lifetime ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

“In my statement [Monday], I said I had full confidence in Adam Silver and how he and the NBA would handle this situation,” Buss said in a statement Tuesday. “In today’s announcement, Adam was decisive, firm and compelling and showed great leadership in his condemnation of the horrible and offensive comments that have led to this action.”

Sterling was fined $2.5 million by Silver and banned forever from attending NBA games and practices, and making business and player-personnel decisions in the league.

Owners for the Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls were just some of the immediate voices in unison with Silver’s decision.

Pelicans owner Tom Benson said in a statement his team would “fully support [Silver’s] recommendations moving forward.”

Three-fourths of the NBA’s owners would have to vote to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, something Silver could not do on his own.

Silver said the league was able to confirm that it was Sterling’s voice on a racially charged audio recording released over the weekend.