Adam Silver has clarified some of the legal details surrounding the ownership of the Clippers and whether or not Mrs. Sterling, Donald Sterling's estranged wife, has any claim to the franchise.

"My position on Mrs. Sterling, and I said at the initial press conference, we haven't focused on any conduct by Mrs. Sterling. The way the franchise termination proceedings work is that if the primary controlling governor of the team in essence is found by three quarters of the other members of the association, the other owners in the league to have in essence done something under our constitution that calls for the termination of his team, all ownership interests are terminated as part of that proceeding," Silver told the media Tuesday night in New York City.

"As I understand the position of Mrs. Sterling's lawyers, in essence they would say we accept you can terminate Mr. Sterling, but somehow Mrs. Sterling comes with the team. I think even if that's not what it said in our constitution, it just doesn't make sense. The same way even if you had unrelated partners, if you terminated the franchise of the primary owner and that owner had several colleagues, cronies, who were also owners with him, it wouldn't make sense that under our constitution we could then go about selling the team, but those other partners would have to come along.

"So our position is once under the constitution, based on Mr. Sterling's conduct, if the owners ultimately decide that it's appropriate to terminate his franchise, the interest of all owners is terminated."