I agree with your thoughts. To me, what some asshole says in private should be just that, private. Does this shed light on his character? no, not really. It's just more public, but it was already pretty well known before hand (from what I've heard and read). I'm hardly any sort of legal expert, but as I attempted to point out in my previous post, I'm not sure how something said in private can be held against him in the manner that they are trying to do... again, had this been said (taped unknowingly or not) at an NBA sanctioned event, then by all means, go after him.
We'll see.