NEW YORK - The National Basketball Association banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the game for life and fined him $2.5 million for racist comments made public over the weekend, the league's commissioner said on Tuesday.

Sterling, the longest-tenured owner of any of the 30 NBA teams, will not be allowed any role in the operations of his team or be able to serve as one of the league's governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced at a news conference in New York.

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling attends a game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California in this January 10, 2014 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

The controversy began over the weekend when the celebrity website TMZ.com released an audio recording with a voice said to be Sterling's criticizing a friend for associating with "black people."

An investigation into the recording concluded the voice was Sterling's Silver told reporters.

"The man whose voice is heard on the recording and on a second recording from the same conversation that was released on Sunday is Mr. Sterling," said Silver, who is confronting his first major crisis since he was named commissioner in February. "The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful."

Related: Silver's 1st crisis as commissioner has arrived