The way I see it is the NBA is a private company, and Sterling is essentially an employee (suppose there is room for argument on that point). It's the NBAs right to deal with him however they want.
In a free society you should be able to make racist remarks in private without being fined and losing your property rights.
This is an interesting point, but that's not really what happened. He thought he was in private, but it became public. He has a valid beef, and probably a legal one, but it'd be akin to me canning one of my staff because they sent a nasty e-mail to a friend and it was forwarded to me. Whether or not the law was broken in the process is another question. I would still be within my rights to fire them, however unfair that is.
As an aside, I also really liked what Kareem Abdul Jabar said about the situation. Smart dude, that guy.
Sterling gave up his "property rights" (or severely limited them) when he entered into a contract with the rest of the NBA owners. Any NBA owner can be dealt with in the same way - it just takes a majority vote. I'm sure many are weary of setting the precedent, and they should be. I have no doubt, they want to make him sell his team not just because he's a racist who's currently getting a lot of media attention, but also because he's a horrible owner and they can use this as an excuse to get rid of him. I'm not sure they're going to be successful though...
Wouldn't it be great if Magic Johnson bought the team?

I'm almost inclined to think it was a setup.
Every time I look out my window, same three dogs looking back at me.