- NEW: Shelly Sterling's attorney said she is innocent victim, should keep her half of team
- The 80-year-old billionaire owns the team with his wife
- He is charged with damage to the NBA and to its relationship with its fans
- Sterling is already fighting his huge fine and lifetime banishment
(CNN) -- Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has until May 27 to respond to the National Basketball Association, which on Monday "initiated a charge" seeking to terminate all ownership rights in the franchise, the NBA announced in a written statement.
Sterling, who owns the team with his wife, Shelly, through a family trust, will also be allowed to make a presentation at a special Board of Governors meeting scheduled for June 3.
In order to terminate the Sterlings' franchise rights, 75% of the other 29 owners would have to vote to sustain the charge and force a sale.
The 80-year-old lawyer and billionaire real estate investor is already fighting a $2.5 million fine and a lifetime ban imposed by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Through his lawyer, Maxwell Blecher, the longtime owner has argued he has been denied due process.
The league said its reputation and relationship with its fans have been damaged by Sterling's racist remarks to V. Stiviano that were posted online in April by TMZ and in an interview with CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."
The NBA's suspension and $2.5-million fine for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling sent shockwaves through the sports world, but it's not the first time a league has cracked down on a team owner. 
Bleacher Report has dubbed Mark Cuban the "King of NBA fines. The notoriously vocal Dallas Mavericks owner has been forced to pay more than $1.8 million in fines since he bought the team in 2000, many of them for colorful language and criticism of referees. 
Former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended from Major League Baseball in 1993 and 1996 for several controversial comments, among them racial epithets against players. In a 1996 interview, she said this about Adolf Hitler: "Everybody knows that he was good at the beginning, but he just went too far." She was forced to sell her controlling interest of the Reds in 1999. 
Before the announcement about Sterling's suspension, Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was the only owner suspended in the NBA in 68 years. The league suspended Taylor in 2000 for a season after the Timberwolves made a secret deal with a star player to circumvent salary cap rules. Now, Taylor is chairman of the NBA board of governors, which Commissioner Adam Silver has asked to vote on stripping Sterling's ownership of the Clippers. 
The NFL suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. for his role in a racketeering scandal tied to riverboat casino licenses. DeBartolo pleaded guilty in 1998 to felony charges of failing to report an extortion case, according to Bleacher Report. By 2000 he was forced to cede control of the team to his sister. 
As former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's bitter divorce became a cloud over the franchise, his financial turmoil forced Major League Baseball to take over the day-to-day operations of the team in 2011. League Commissioner Bud Selig accused McCourt of "looting" the club of $190 million to fund an extravagant lifestyle. McCourt filed for bankruptcy later that year. During bankruptcy proceedings, McCourt agreed to sell the team under a bidding process. 
The late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon in 1974. He was banned for life in 1990 after paying a gambler $40,000 to get damaging information about a player, but Major League Baseball reinstated him three years later. 
The NBA said Miami Heat owner Micky Arison had been fined in 2011 for posting about the league's collective bargaining process on Twitter. The amount of the fine was not disclosed, but several media reports said it was $500,000. 
The NBA slapped Aubrey McClendon, partial owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder, with a $250,000 fine in 2007 after he told an Oklahoma newspaper that he hoped to move the team, then known as the Seattle SuperSonics, to Oklahoma. 
The NBA fined former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss $25,000 and suspended him for two games in 2007 after his conviction on a misdemeanor drunk driving charge. Buss died in 2013. 
The outspoken CNN founder and former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner was suspended for a year in 1977 for negotiating a deal with a player who was under contract to play for the San Francisco Giants. Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly
Team owners behaving badly 
Anderson Cooper's inside story 
Donald Sterling's apology fallout "Among other things, Mr. Sterling disparaged African-Americans and 'minorities'; directed a female acquaintance not to associate publicly with African-Americans or to bring African-Americans to Clippers games; and criticized African-Americans for not supporting their communities," the statement said.
Last week, Sterling hired Blecher, an antitrust lawyer who has worked with him in the past, to fight the NBA.
Shelly Sterling has said she wants to keep an ownership stake in the team but doesn't want to be the controlling partner.
Her attorney said she still hopes to resolve the "dispute with the NBA."
"Based on our initial assessment, we continue to believe there is no lawful basis for stripping Shelly Sterling of her 50 percent ownership interest in the Clippers. She is the innocent estranged spouse," Pierce O'Donnell said.
CNN also reached out to the attorneys for Donald Sterling on Monday but didn't hear back immediately.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's "AC 360" last week, Sterling repeatedly denied he is a racist but admitted he made a mistake making the remarks that were recorded.
In the recording, which drew widespread condemnation from fans, players and the league after it appeared on TMZ, Sterling chastises Stiviano for posting pictures online of her posing with African-Americans, including NBA legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson. He tells her not to bring Johnson to Clippers games.
"Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don't put (Magic) on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me," he said.
"In your lousy f**ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with -- walking with black people," he said during a different portion of the recording.
Sterling, who has owned the team since 1981, said he was baited into saying those remarks.
The Clippers' turbulent season ended late Thursday in a 104-98 loss to Oklahoma City. The Thunder won the series four games to two.
Dick Parsons, a former chairman of Citigroup and Time Warner, was tapped by the NBA to be the team's interim chief executive.
CNN's Jill Martin and Stephanie Elam contributed to this report.
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