Personally, I think inaction by Silver is the more dangerous precedent. Allowing players to boycott and essentially cancel (or at best postpone) a playoff game (or even worse a playoff series) is a terrible short term consequence (and quite possibly could have only been a threat and would never have happened) and allowing Sterling to continue business as usual would result in far more negative long term consequences.
This is truly a rare situation with a very low probability of reoccurrence. You can argue what Sterling’s girlfriend did was unfair, but there is nothing unjust about what Silver and the other owners are doing to Sterling. There are reasons there are “good of the game” clauses in pro sports bylaws that give the commissioner and other owners the authority to do what they are doing. The other owners may be right to be concerned about this precedence, but I seriously doubt any of them are losing sleep about it.
With regards to the inmates running the asylum, of all the pro sports unions, the NBA players association has the least amount of solidarity. History has shown when there is a threat of them losing game checks, they cave. The owners know they don’t need to give them some cause to rally around.
