In 2004, Suns owner Robert Sarver used the N-word during a meeting to recruit a free agent player. In 2021, Sarver talked about learning what a “blow job” was during a Suns’ business meeting.
For the 17 years in between, Sarver was often a bully, the man who oversaw a Suns organization with racist and misogynistic overtones that flowed directly from the top. All of that and more is detailed in a 36-page report flowing out of an NBA investigation into the franchise by the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
The report found more than 100 employees who said Sarver “violated applicable standards” of business conduct, but that legalese sells short what employees were dealing with. For example, he “told a pregnant employee that she would be unable to do her job upon becoming a mother,” he “made a comment to a female employee about his genitalia” (that happened more than once), he emailed pornographic material to some other male colleagues, Sarver used the N-word at least five times (despite being told multiple times by staff that was not acceptable), he swore often, and “over 50 current and former employees reported that Sarver frequently engaged in demeaning and harsh treatment of employees.”
All that is just the tip of a very disturbing iceberg in the report. Nearly every detailed incident was something that would get nearly everybody reading this fired on the spot.
Yet Sarver will still be the owner, be working out of the offices of the Phoenix Suns a year from now and sitting courtside at their 2023-24 games.
Sarver was suspended by the NBA for a year for creating a hostile work environment, and he was fined $10 million — with that money being directed to organizations focused on racial and gender-based issues in and out of the workplace — but he will not lose control of the team.
The most shocking part report was this paragraph:
“Taking the evidence in totality, including witness testimony and documents reviewed by investigators, the investigation makes no finding that Sarver’s conduct was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.”
Are they kidding? How could nearly two decades of this consistent behavior not be motivated by racial or gender-based animus? Just because Sarver doesn’t recognize it as animus and thinks his sophomoric humor is just misunderstood, doesn’t make it any less horrible, demeaning, or racist. Ask the women in the office he berated if they felt there was animus.
The NBA chose to take it easy on Sarver. Adam Silver chose to avoid confrontation. The punishments should have been more severe, maybe including losing the team. One year is a slap on the wrist.
Why wasn’t Sarver forced to sell his team the way Donald Sterling was with the Clippers eight years ago? Why did Sarver get basically the same punishment the Mavericks got for troubling issues on their business side, but ones not linked to owner Mark Cuban and not stretching anywhere near decades?
In Sterling’s case there was audio (leaked by his mistress to TMZ) — actually hearing the vile, racist comments from Sterling himself made it more visceral. There is no audio or video of Sarver, no smoking gun of the same degree, despite the volume of complaints in the report.
Those Sterling tapes also came out during the playoffs, leading to strong reactions from players — including almost boycotting a game — and a very public show against the then Clippers owner.
LeBron: "There is no room for Donald Sterling in our league. There's just no room for him."
— Ethan J. Skolnick, 5 Reasons Sports (@EthanJSkolnick) April 26, 2014
Numerous NBA sponsors — State Farm, Carmax, Kia, Red Bull, and many others — also pulled away from the Clippers and the league after the Sterling tapes came out. The second the scandal hit the league’s bottom line, Adam Silver acted quickly and decisively.
The Sarver scandal dropped in the deadest part of the NBA offseason and has not seen the same level of player involvement and public anger as the Sterling case. There has not been a sponsor backlash to this point. Sarver also “took responsibility” for his actions, which was not a genuine apology but was more contrite than Sterling.
Also, don’t forget NBA Commissioner Adam Silver works for — and at the pleasure of — the NBA owners. Plenty of them live in glass houses and don’t want to start throwing stones.
If the NBA is not going to step up with a punishment that is a true deterrent (and reflection of the offense), it needs to at least find a way to keep this from happening at other NBA (and WNBA) franchises. Silver sent a memo to teams in the wake of the Mavericks scandal telling them to clean up their own houses, but that didn’t happen everywhere, as evidenced by this report.
If the NBA is going to champion its progressive policies and credentials — if it’s going to claim to stand for diversity, inclusion, and equality — it has to start living up to those ideals within teams. Those can’t simply be words.
What can be done? Sam Amick at The Athletic wisely suggests the NBA find a way for team employees to make a complaint to them about working conditions/situations and have them investigated, rather than going to team human resources. In Phoenix, people didn’t come forward because they feared reprisals from HR, which was seen as an extension of Sarver’s will and not something there to protect the workers. It may be that way with other teams, the NBA needs an anonymous complaint of.
There may be other steps as well. The owners may not want more league oversight of their business, but if they can’t police themselves than the NBA has no choice. Not that the NBA itself is blameless here — both the Sarver and Sterling situations went on for decades before there was action. That is not acceptable.
The league has to do more. It may take real pressure from the players and league sponsors to make that happen — players shouldn’t be the ones having to hold the league to its own standards, but here we are.
The NBA fined and suspended Sarver, but did not take the steps that would put the fear of god (or Adam Silver) in other owners. It went easy on him despite decades of evidence.
It’s time for the NBA to live up to its words and ideals.
Chris Paul knew the questions were coming: Suns media day is Sept. 26 and he was going to be asked multiple times about the actions and ensuing one-year suspension of team owner Robert Sarver for racist and misogynistic behavior, as well as creating a hostile work environment.
So Paul got out in front of it, releasing a statement on Twitter.
I am of the view that the sanctions fell short in truly addressing what we can all agree was atrocious behavior. My heart goes out to all of the people that were affected.
— Chris Paul (@CP3) September 15, 2022
CP3’s comments echo those of LeBron James, who made his statement earlier Wednesday night.
behavior. I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But this isn’t right. There is no place for misogyny, sexism, and racism in any work place. Don’t matter if you own the team or play for the team. We hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it.
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 14, 2022
Tamika Tremaglio, the National Basketball Players’ Association executive director, also released a statement with the same sentiment.
Yesterday the NBA released the findings from the independent investigation by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz involving Suns Governor Robert Sarver.
Mr. Sarver’s reported actions and conduct are horrible and have no place in our sport or any workplace for that matter.— Tamika Tremaglio (@ttremaglioNBPA) September 15, 2022
All issues that led to a toxic work environment for well over a decade.
I have made my position known to Adam Silver regarding my thoughts on the extent of the punishment, and strongly believe that Mr. Sarver should never hold a managerial position within our league again.
— Tamika Tremaglio (@ttremaglioNBPA) September 15, 2022
All of these statements came hours after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver tried to defend his decision for his fine and one-year suspension of Sarver.
“Let me reiterate, the conduct is indefensible,” Silver said at a press conference. “But I feel we dealt with it in a fair manner in both taking into account the totality of the circumstances, not just those particular allegations, but the 18 years in which Mr. Sarver has owned the Suns and the (WNBA Phoenix) Mercury.”
Silver’s one-year suspension likely played well with other NBA owners — the people Silver works for — as there are plenty of them living in glass houses who don’t want to start throwing stones.
However, it has not played well outside that room, with many people around the league — and in the Suns’ offices – saying Sarver got off easy. Now influential players are calling the league out on it. If this momentum keeps building, it could force Silver to reconsider just a one-year ban.
One of the reasons Donald Sterling was given a lifetime ban from the NBA and eventually was forced to sell the team back in 2014 was the pressure from players. His Clippers made a very public on-court protest, the Warriors and Clippers almost boycotted a game, and other players such as LeBron James raised their voices in protest.
That backlash hadn’t happened with Suns’ owner Robert Sarver, even after the league suspended him for a year and fined him $10 million for racist and misogynistic comments, as well as creating a hostile work environment for the Suns organization.
That was, until Wednesday afternoon, when LeBron spoke out.
behavior. I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But this isn’t right. There is no place for misogyny, sexism, and racism in any work place. Don’t matter if you own the team or play for the team. We hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it.
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 14, 2022
LeBron is the first current player but far from the only voice saying Sarver got away with a light punishment for 18 years of offenses — that includes some current and former Suns employees.
“It’s barely a slap on the wrist and shows us the league truly doesn’t stand for diversity, equity or inclusion. I’m grateful to have the validation after being told I was insane, a bitch, and being dramatic. That definitely lets me breathe a little. But I’m angry. The league failed us when they had the opportunity to stand behind its values.”
Just hours before LeBron’s Tweet, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defended his decision to suspend Sarver for a year, saying that he took into consideration the bigger picture, which includes the positive things Sarver has done and the progress he made.
“Let me reiterate, the conduct is indefensible,” Silver said at a press conference following a Board of Governor’s (owners) meeting in New York. “But I feel we dealt with it in a fair manner in both taking into account the totality of the circumstances, not just those particular allegations, but the 18 years in which Mr. Sarver has owned the Suns and the (WNBA Phoenix) Mercury.”
Silver said there was no discussion with the other owners about removing Sarver and forcing him to sell.
This was the most off-balance the usually smooth Silver had ever appeared at a press conference. He struggled to come up with a good answer for why Sarver would be able to continue as an NBA owner in 12 months when any league or team employee would have been fired for a fraction of the incidents detailed in a 36-page report the league commissioned. In doing so, Silver revealed the truth — owners can’t be fired.
“There are particular rights here of someone who owns an NBA team as opposed to somebody who is an employee…” Silver said.
“I don’t have the right to take away his team. I don’t want to rest on that legal point because of course there could be a process to take away someone’s team in this league. It’s very involved, and I ultimately made the decision that it didn’t rise to that level… There’s no neat answer here, other than owning property, the rights that come with owning an NBA team, how that’s set up within our constitution, what it would take to remove that team from his control is a very involved process, and it’s different than holding a job. It just is, when you actually own a team. It’s just a very different proposition.”
Silver also spent considerable time explaining what was different to him about this Sarver case from the Sterling case, where the league gave an owner a lifetime ban and eventually forced a team sale.
“I think what we saw in the case of Donald Sterling was blatant racist conduct directed at a select group of people. While it’s difficult to know what is in someone’s heart or in their mind, we heard those words….” Silver said. “In the case of Robert Sarver, I’d say, first of all, we’re looking at the totality of circumstances over an 18-year period in which he’s owned these teams, and ultimately we made a judgment… It’s beyond the pale in every possible way to use language and behave that way, but that it was wholly of a different kind than what we saw in that earlier case.
One thing that was different with Sterling — aside the player pressure and the presence of the audio tape everyone could hear as opposed to a written report — was the fact that t team and league sponsors started pulling back from the Clippers. Big names sponsors — State Farm, Carmax, Kia, Corona — hit the other owners in the pocketbook. That changed the dynamic, although still not all owners wanted to force out Sarver.
Sponsors have yet to pull away from the league due to Sarver.
If players speak out, fans speak out, and sponsors pull away the dynamic around Sarver could change. But, for now, Silver has said his peace and both he and Sarver will keep their heads down and hope this situation blows over.
Players from the WNBA and NBA may not let that happen.
Donovan Mitchell made it clear — he is excited to be in Cleveland and see what these young Cavaliers can become.
But Mitchell thought he was going to be traded to the Knicks. Just like everyone around the league expected.
“Once Rudy [Gobert] got traded, I kind of saw the writing on the wall. You know, I think we all did,” Mitchell said at his introductory press conference in Cleveland. “I think we understood we had a good run. I kind of had a feeling I was gonna get moved.
“Like I said, I thought it was New York, I’m not gonna lie to you. You know, obviously, who doesn’t want to be home next to mom? I haven’t lived at home since I was like an eighth grader, been at boarding school, and that would have been nice. For me, I once I found out I got traded [to Cleveland] and what we’re going into, like that trumped everything for me. Like I said, I’m truly excited to be here to be part of this group to be a part of the city.”
The Knicks were always considered the frontrunner for Mitchell in a trade — they had the most picks to offer (unprotected and otherwise), good young players, and the Knicks wanted to bring Mitchell back to where he was born. He wanted to be there. It was a match.
But in negotiations, New York tried hard not to bid against itself (as Minnesota was perceived to do in the Rudy Gobert trade), and the Knicks wanted to keep some of their assets in reserve to make the next big trade (they would not have contended with Mitchell alone). The Jazz were trying to squeeze everything out of New York. The sides couldn’t find a middle ground. Once New York took RJ Barrett off the table by signing him to an extension, the Mitchell trade fell apart — even if the Knicks didn’t realize it and thought the Jazz would return to the table. Instead, the Cavaliers stepped in with a clear offer and the deal was done.
Did New York make a mistake letting a star who wanted to be the face of the Knicks slip through their hands, or were they wise to wait? It depends on what happens when the next star becomes available (Leon Rose‘s job could depend on that, too).
Landing Mitchell was a smart play by the Cavaliers, who now have a solid core four that will keep them in the playoffs and a threat for years. How good they can ultimately be is up for debate, but they should be a playoff team starting this season and for years to come. Cleveland made a smart roll of the dice.
Cleveland may not have been Mitchell’s preferred destination, but he is happy to be there.
BERLIN — France pulled off a wild rally at the end of regulation, then carried that momentum into a spot in the EuroBasket semifinals.
Thomas Heurtel scored 20 points, Rudy Gobert had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and France found a way to get past Italy 93-85 in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday.
France was down by seven with 1:59 left in regulation, and that was when it started on what became a 25-10 run to finish the contest.
It was France’s second consecutive fourth-quarter rally and overtime win, after needing the same formula to get past Turkey in the round of 16 on Saturday.
“I don’t really believe in luck,” Gobert said. “Tonight, we could have given up, once again, but we got the baskets we needed.”
Next up for France: either defending champion Slovenia, or Poland, on Friday for a berth in the title game. The Slovenia-Poland quarterfinal matchup was later Wednesday.
The other half of the semifinal bracket was set Tuesday: Germany will play Spain, also on Friday.
Gobert started the game-ending burst with a dunk to get his team within 75-70.
Italy had a chance to potentially seal the game with 16 seconds left, up by two, but Simone Fontecchio missed a pair of free throws. It was another eerie resemblance to Saturday, when Cedi Osman, with Turkey up by two, missed two free throws with 12.2 seconds left to extend France’s hopes.
Heurtel’s layup tied the game with 5.2 seconds left in regulation. France trailed only once in overtime, for just 23 seconds, and Evan Fournier‘s floater with 3:29 left put his team ahead for good.
Fournier scored 17 for France, which got 15 from Guerschon Yabusele and 13 from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
“Congratulations to France,” Italy coach Gianmarco Pozzecco said. “They never gave up.”
Fontecchio and Marco Spissu each had 21 points for Italy, which was seeking its first trip to the EuroBasket semifinals since winning bronze in 2003.
Luigi Datome scored 12 and Nicolo Melli added 10 for Italy, which trailed by as many as 11 in the early going but outscored France 31-18 in the third quarter and led by as many as eight early in the fourth.
“What can I say? Very painful, of course,” Datome said. “Very, very painful. But I’m so proud of my teammates.”
