A few thoughts on the Donald Sterling scandal, but first a personal disclosure: I have sometimes uttered words in the heat of a domestic squabble that I later regretted. I have expressed thoughts in personal conversation that I would never want to share with the world. On occasion I have yielded to impulses in private that I would be loath to be judged by in public. 
 
 Maybe you have too. 
 
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 Torrents of contempt have been raining down on Sterling since the release of an audio recording, apparently genuine, in which the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers tells his mistress to stop posting online pictures of herself with black men, including Magic Johnson, “and not to bring them to my games.” Sterling’s comments are repulsive, vulgar, and saturated with bigotry. His girlfriend — who is black and Mexican — effortlessly goads him. “If it’s white people, it’s OK?” she asks at one point. “If it was Larry Bird, would it have made a difference?” 
 
 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver yesterday suspended Sterling for life and imposed a $2.5 million fine as a penalty for “the hateful opinions” heard on the recorded audio clip. 
 
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 My sympathy for Sterling is nonexistent. His racist remarks are odious, and they couldn’t have come as a shock to anyone who has followed his career. Yet the most alarming part of this story has less to do with basketball or the racial prejudices of an 80-year-old plutocrat than with what it says about the rapidly disappearing presumption that things we say in our personal lives will stay personal. 
 
 Of course any decent person should be disgusted by the gross things Sterling allegedly said to the girlfriend. But as former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Monday: “Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizens’ privacy in such an un-American way?” 
 
 There is good reason why it is illegal in many states (including California and Massachusetts) to surreptitiously record a private conversation, just as there is a good reason for the traditional common-law privilege that protects certain kinds of confidential communication — like that between husband/wife, priest/penitent, or attorney/client — from being disclosed unwillingly in court. They reflect a value critical to a free society: Private lives and private thoughts aren’t supposed to be everyone’s business. 
 
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 But everywhere today that value is being eroded by the intrusions modern technology makes possible. It is becoming harder than ever to be sure anything you say or do is being said or done in true privacy. Creeps with cellphone cameras take “upskirt” photos. Intimate encounters end up on YouTube. Tens of thousands of surveillance cameras combine with ever-more-sophisticated facial-recognition software, and the upshot is that no matter where you go, you’re on candid camera. And websites like TMZ encourage the exploitation of personal embarrassments for public entertainment. 
 
 Prudent politicians must assume that everything they say is being recorded and may be used against them. Presidential candidates no longer have the luxury of speaking in privacy to groups of supporters, a lesson learned by Barack Obama from his “bitter clingers” experience in 2008, and by Mitt Romney when his “47 percent” remarks were secretly taped and disseminated. Louisiana Representative Vance McAllister announced on Monday that he would not run for reelection after a security surveillance camera showed him kissing a married female staffer, and someone leaked the video to a local newspaper. 
 
 Do you bear in mind at all times that your words, actions, and whereabouts are being captured for posterity on security cameras? 
 
 None of this is meant in defense of Sterling’s bigotry or congressional hanky-panky or any other dishonest activity. It is meant as a reminder that it isn’t only other people’s dirty laundry that the whole world can get a good look at. It is yours and mine, too. Once our privacy is gone, don’t count on getting it back. ||||| Call it the most spectacular slam dunk in professional basketball history. 
 
 With one dazzling, devastating move, the NBA has thrown down against evil. 
 
 Thankfully, finally, Donald Sterling is done. 
 
 The man who poisoned the Los Angeles Clippers for nearly 30 years with his ignorance and hate has at last been dragged away into sweet oblivion. 
 
 Four days after the release of audiotapes on which Sterling is heard making racist comments, the NBA has banned the Clippers owner for life. 
 
 “We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s views,’’ said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday morning. “They simply have no place in the NBA.’’ 
 
 Sterling was also fined the maximum $2.5 million, but, for the eccentric billionaire who viewed his team as a way to be accepted among his social circle, the lost money is nothing compared with his lost status. 
 
 No longer can he sit at courtside with his chest puffed out. No longer can he entertain friends in the press room after games. No longer can he go into the locker room and lead the team in awkward cheers. 
 
 The lifetime ban essentially takes away every reason that Donald Sterling has for owning the team, which would seem to make it another slam dunk that he would sell it. 
 
 But not so fast. Even in a decision that was celebrated by players and owners alike, there is a loophole. 
 
 Bottom line, right now, it is still Sterling’s team. Beginning Tuesday night with the Clippers playoff game against the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center, every penny earned by the Clippers for the foreseeable future still goes into Donald Sterling’s pocket. 
 
 The owners can force Sterling to sell the team with a three-fourths majority vote, and Silver said, “I will urge the Board of Governors to exercise authority to force a sale of the team … and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that that happens.” 
 
 Surely, in this climate, few owners would have the gall to allow Sterling to keep the team. Again, this seems like another slam dunk. 
 
 But remember, some of these same owners have tolerated Sterling’s racist antics for years. And while Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, publicly supported Silver’s decision, he had previously wondered about the fairness of judging any owner for private words instead of public actions. 
 
 Cuban called it, “a slippery slope,’’ so it’s fair to worry that even though Donald Sterling can no longer be around the Clippers, it could be a long while before he is removed from the Clippers bank accounts. 
 
 Already, the player’s union has asked the league for a timetable on the forcing of a sale. If there is no potential sale this summer, Silver left open the possibility of Clippers players voiding their contracts. And don’t forget, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers has already essentially said he wouldn’t continue coaching a Donald Sterling team past this season. 
 
 And, oh yes, Sterling has a history of suing everything that moves, so who knows when his name is finally off the deed? 
 
 So many questions remain, questions that will still have to be answered by players, fans and sponsors as this postseason moves forward. This issue still has potential to put the Clippers in all sorts of messy situations. 
 
 But thankfully, finally, the stain that is Donald Sterling is being wiped clean. 
 
 Bill.plaschke@latimes.com 
 
 Twitter: @billplaschke
– The NBA today came down hard on Clippers owner Donald Sterling after audio surfaced of his racist comments, with the league banning him for life from games and personnel decisions and making it likely he'll be forced to sell the team. Two of the more common sentiments in the immediate aftermath: Bravo: It's "the most spectacular slam dunk in professional basketball history," writes Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times. Sterling has "poisoned" the franchise with his bigotry for 30 years, and it's a relief to be done with him. Given his deep pockets and penchant for legal fights, this could still get seriously messy, but for now, it's cause of celebration. "With one dazzling, devastating move, the NBA has thrown down against evil." Yes, but: Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe has zero sympathy for Sterling and isn't out to defend his racism. But he reminds everyone that Sterling's downfall arrived because a girlfriend secretly recorded a private conversation. Doesn't this deserve a little outrage, too, or are we already too accustomed to a no-privacy world? Remember "that it isn’t only other people’s dirty laundry that the whole world can get a good look at," he writes. "It is yours and mine, too. Once our privacy is gone, don’t count on getting it back."