Of course not, but being the owner of a restaurant or an art gallery is a whole lot different than being the owner of a professional sports team.
It's the old argument of how professional sports compares to regular jobs.....the fact is, they don't. You can't compare the two because they are nothing alike.
And being as athletes, coaches, and owners/GM's operate on a different set of rules, for better or worse (worse in this instance), we simply cannot use any real world stuff to compare it with.
If I say what he said as the owner of a bar, then maybe some people decide not to show up anymore and that's the end of it. But he's the owner of a pro sports team which also happens to be a very public business where how one conducts himself is one of the most important aspects of the "job". A black eye for you is a black eye for the league, and you know this when you come into that environment.
In other words, I believe they have full right to punish him the way they have regardless if what he said was in a private conversation. That conversation is no longer private, and for the sake and reputation of the entire league, they have to act accordingly and I think they've done that.