- Source: Sterling says he'll sue NBA if he's punished
- The longtime Clippers owner is banned from team operations, facilities
- He also owes a $2.5 million fine
- His lawyer has successfully sued the NFL before
(CNN) -- Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has sent a letter to the National Basketball Association telling the league he won't pay his $2.5 million fine and rejecting his lifetime ban, a source close to the situation said Friday.
The letter also threatens the NBA with a lawsuit if Sterling's punishment for making racist remarks, handed down by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in April, is not rescinded, the source said.
"We reject your demand for payment," the letter says, according to Sports Illustrated.
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 
Will Sterling fight to keep the Clippers? 
Sterling: 'I'm a good person' 
New Sterling recording released 
Sterling: 'I made such a mistake' 
Sterling: Racism is not a big problem 
Magic to Sterling: Can't win this battle In an exclusive interview with CNN's "AC 360" this week, Sterling repeatedly denied he is a racist despite remarks made in a private conversation with his friend V. Stiviano that were released online.
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 said he was baited into saying those remarks.
Silver and the league moved quickly, announcing the punishment three days after the recordings were released.
"I'm apologizing, and I'm asking for forgiveness," Sterling told Cooper. "Am I entitled to one mistake? After 35 years. I mean, I love my league, I love my partners. ... It's a terrible mistake, and I'll never do it again."
The league's 29 other owners have taken the initial steps to force Sterling to sell the franchise he has owned for 33 years, with an advisory committee meeting three times so far.
Sterling's estranged wife, Shelly, has said she wants to keep her 50% ownership in the team, which is through a family trust.
The NBA last week tapped Dick Parsons, a former chairman of Citigroup and Time Warner, to be the team's interim chief executive.
Sterling has hired Maxwell Blecher, an antitrust lawyer, to represent him with the NBA, Sports Illustrated and USA Today reported.
Blecher represented the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in its lawsuit victory against the NFL that allowed the Raiders to move to the city from Oakland without approval from other owners before the 1982 season. The Raiders returned in 1995.
According to a 1982 Washington Post article, Blecher also represented Sterling when the Clippers owner wanted to move the team from San Diego to Los Angeles. The NBA fined the franchise $25 million when he did so in 1984, but Sterling sued until the league reduced the fine, according to multiple media reports.
CNN reached out to Blecher and the NBA on Thursday night but didn't hear back immediately.
Blecher reportedly argued that Sterling was being denied due process rights and he hadn't violated the NBA constitution.
The Clippers' turbulent season ended late Thursday in a 104-98 loss to Oklahoma City. The Thunder won the series four games to two.
At a post-game news conference, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he didn't think the team could use the controversy surrounding their owner as an excuse for bowing out of the playoffs.
"Obviously, it's nothing that anybody wants to go through -- nothing I want to go through -- but overall, I thought our fan base, I thought the city, and I thought our guys really hung in there ... very proud of them," Rivers said. "None of us signed on for this, but this is what happened."
Clippers point guard Chris Paul was in no mood about Sterling after the game.
"That's the least of our worries right now is him. We just lost the damn series," he said. "That's the last thing on our mind. We gave him too much attention as it is."
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