The Golden State Warriors were planning on walking out of tonight's playoff game

At no point upon hearing the news that Adam Silver and the NBA had decided to ban Donald Sterling for life did I ever consider having conflicted thoughts on the penalty given out. And, to be clear, I'm totally happy with the decision. But, at the same time, one can't help buth fathom how truly awesome this would've been:

via the Bay Area News Group:

The plan was set, the product of a 30-minute players meeting.

The Warriors were going to go through pre-game warm-ups and take part in the national anthem and starting line-up introductions. They were going to take the floor for the jump ball, dapping up the Clippers players as is customary before games.

Then once the ball was in the air, they were just going to walk off. All 15 of them.

“It would have been our only chance to make a statement in front of the biggest audience that we weren’t going to accept anything but the maximum punishment,” Curry said. “We would deal with the consequences later but we were not going to play.”

The message was intentionally bold and controversial, point guard Stephen Curry said. And if they had their way, the Clippers would have joined them in exiting the court.

That would've been one truly powerful and amazing protest. Fortunately, it wasn't necessary based on the firm action the NBA took against Donald Sterling today.

Slightly off topic but on the subject of Sterling, consider this;

There's already been a decent amount of talk about how this isn't truly a 'penalty' for Sterling. He's rich, and the sanctions made today will only make him richer. But I think his immediate proclamation of 'The Clippers aren't for sale' speaks volumes to the situation; more money doesn't matter that much to him, continuing to own the LA Clippers does.