NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handled his first big decision nearly to perfection on Tuesday as he laid the hammer down on Clippers owner Donald Sterling by banning him from the NBA for life and fining him $2.5 million.

If that wasn't historic enough, he also announced that he would recommend the NBA owners vote to force Sterling to sale the Clippers, a move that would set an even stronger precedent and stance against racism in the league, and for that matter, sports in general.

Sacramento has had quite the presence in this Sterling saga. It was April 29, 2013 when the NBA relocation committee voted against Seattle and for Sacramento in the battle over the Kings. Fast forward a year and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is the chairman of the National Basketball Players Association's executive committee and leading the players' charge against Sterling. Johnson denounced Sterling early and often throughout this process. During his press conference Tuesday, Silver said he was on the phone with Johnson multiple times a day over the last couple of days. Heck, Vice President Joe Biden even called Johnson on Tuesday to tell him he was behind him and the players.

Johnson had several strong statements throughout the process, like this one on Monday night. Here he is posted up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during Silver's press conference.

And here he is after the Silver press conference.

Johnson told Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee that his efforts in the Sterling saga were the most important of his tenure as mayor of Sacramento.

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive was one of the first NBA owners to speak out against Sterling when he called for zero tolerance after TMZ released the recordings. On Tuesday, he stated he would be willing to lead the motion of the NBA owners to vote to force Sterling to sell.

Here is Ranadive via TrueHoop's Henry Abbott.

Silver also brought up Ranadive during his press conference as an example of the league being open to individuals of different backgrounds and ethnicities.

It's good to see Sacramento represented so well on such a grand scale, especially in an effort related to squashing racist sentiments.

As for the commissioner; the Adam Silver era may have started on Feb. 1, but it officially began on April 29, when he used Donald Sterling as an example of how the league will handle racism moving forward.

A historic day indeed.