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Basketball Commissioner Adam Silver slapped Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling with a lifetime ban from the sport and a $2.5 million fine Tuesday over racist remarks attributed to Sterling.

Silver said the National Basketball Association “will begin immediately” to force Sterling to sell the team, which he has owned since the 1980s. Sterling admitted it was his voice on the recording, Silver said.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, the head of the league’s players association had called for Silver to hit Sterling with the most severe penalties.

“When a hint of cancer is shown, you have to cut it out immediately, and I feel that’s where the players are today,” Kevin Johnson, the former all-star who is the chairman of the National Basketball Players Association’s executive committee, told CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

Johnson said the players trust that the new commissioner, on the job for less than three months, will find the right penalties for Sterling.

“They don’t think he’s worthy to be an owner,” said Johnson, also the mayor of Sacramento, “so whether there’s a sanction that includes a suspension, whether there’s a sanction that includes a hefty fine … the players feel very strongly that he’s not fit to be an owner and a part of this NBA family.”

Former NBA player Thurl Bailey, a broadcaster for the Utah Jazz, told CNN that if Sterling merely received some kind of suspension, that would be an inadequate way to address the issue.

Bailey said he recognized Sterling’s voice on recordings that were posted online that are at the center of the controversy.

“For me, that was his voice,” Bailey said.

Tuesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, called on Silver to meet this week with him and other civil rights leaders, according to a statement from the organization. Sharpton is planning to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington to discuss the situation, it said.

Monday brought a slew of sponsors distancing themselves from the team and a host of other owners and team officials condemning the comments attributed to Sterling, who has never been disciplined by the league.

Adidas confirmed to CNN Tuesday that it was suspending its current marketing partnership with the Clippers. That means the company will not have in-arena promotions, signage, LED boards and so forth, but Adidas will remain the official outfitter. The Adidas logo doesn’t appear on the team’s warm-ups, shooting shirts and gear, Adidas spokeswoman Laura Lamkin said in an e-mail.