Let’s play a game of “what if?” regarding Donald Sterling and the LA Clippers. “NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he would do ‘everything in my power’ to force Sterling to sell the franchise.” We’ve gone from a woman employed by Sterling making public a privately recorded conversation to him being forced to sell his team, all in a matter of weeks.

This raised some suspicions for me. What if this was a set up?

What if some people in the NBA, who have known about Sterling’s racist rants and racist and bigoted antics, wanted to get rid of the old man, devalue the Clippers, and buy it at a discounted price?

Some clever legal eagle read over the contract, saw an opening, and put the conspiracy in motion.

V. Stiviano has been portrayed as Sterling’s “girlfriend or mistress.” Friends say otherwise. Her friend Karrine Steffans, author of Confessions of a Video Vixen, told FOX411 that Stiviano actually worked for the team. ‘V. Stiviano has worked for Donald Sterling for several years as part of the Clippers organization.’”

Granted, someone who’s the author of Confessions of a Video Vixen may not be a reliable source, but it does make you wonder what V. Stiviano has to gain by turning on Sterling unless there’s a future payoff.

So maybe this was an inside job. The recording made by V. Stiviano sounds like she’s reading from a script, like the whole thing was planned with the goal of moving Sterling out before he died and passed ownership to his wife (who may have a stake in the team) or other interests. Get it now — cheap.

Stranger things have happened.

On another related topic. Is anybody concerned that a taped private conversation can be used in such a way? What’s next? What new words of social indiscretion will be used against team owners and maybe even you or me? Rush Limbaugh has an idea.

CNN was “doing a Special Report on NBA commissioner Adam Silver banning Donald Sterling for life. . . . Don Lemon speaking with CNN’s Unguarded — that’s the name of her show, I guess – [asked] host Rachel Nichols about the ban of Sterling. And Don Lemon said, ‘Rachel, other owners around the league, do they need to pay attention, maybe change their behavior a little bit, Rachel?’”

NICHOLS: Yeah. I mean, in the NBA you have an owner in Orlando, Rich DeVos who’s made very unpopular statements. He’s campaigned against gay rights. He says that gay people should stop asking for special treatment because they want to get married. There are a lot of people in this country who think that that is a problem, and I think that there is gonna be more and more attention paid to what these owners think. It’s not just the players in the spotlight now, it’s not just management. They’re accountable, too.”

While everybody’s puffing themselves up over how righteous they are about ousting Sterling, they better watch their backs and their lips. There might be someone with a recording device making note of every word.

Gabe Feldman, the director of the Sports Law Center at Tulane University, “questioned whether owners would vote to remove one of their own ‘based on something they don’t like,’ possibly creating a precedent that might be used against them one day.”

The owners will have to vote to remove Sterling or they will be labeled “racists.” Here comes the slippery slope watered by every liberal cause imaginable.