The first suspension was 8 games so the repeat offense being 3x the penalty seems reasonable. Another poster mentioned that it also makes him ineligible for a lot of end of year awards. I Silver mentioning that they found additional information had everyone thinking the new stuff was worse and worth a bigger suspension.
It's almost 1/3 of the games. "Conduct detrimental to the league" is a bit less set in stone than failing a drug test or something. I don't know what people expected, there is a player's union that the NBA has to think about. They don't want the union disputing their decision and turning it into more of a circus. Not sure what people were expecting.
I agree. Missing 25 games as a professional player while your team either gels or struggles without you would be extremely difficult. If this isn't a wakeup call then 35 or 45 games wouldn't be either.