On the eve of the NBA’s return, extra-sports news is stirring in Phoenix. Sunder investigation since the publication of an ESPN articlein November 2021, highlighting racist and sexist behavior, Suns owner Robert Sarver was finally convicted on Tuesday, September 13.
The NBA, which then commissioned an independent investigation, suspended him for one year and fined ten million dollars. Concretely, Sarver can no longer run a franchise. He is also prohibited from attending games, such as frequenting the facilities of NBA and WNBA teams, the North American women’s league in which he owns the Mercury Phoenix.
Sarver is notably accused of having treated its employees unfairly, using “words disregarding racial sensitivities”a sexually connoted language and to have had an attitude of harassment.
The ten million dollars requested from the businessman – who will be donated to organizations fighting against discrimination “race and gender” – represent, of course, the maximum financial penalty authorized by the league code, but the world of American basketball expected more.
Besides Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who tweeted that the “League got it wrong” on the degree of the sanction, the point guard of the Arizona franchise Chris Paul said to himself “horrified and disappointed” by investigation report. “This attitude, particularly towards women, is unacceptable. I am of the opinion that the sanctions were not commensurate with what we can all consider to be atrocious behavior”, he wrote on his social networks.
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
If the executive director of the players’ union (NBPA), Tamika Tremaglio, for her part, judged that Sarver should not “never again occupy a management position” in the league after his conduct “horrible”Suns vice-president Jahm Najafi was more direct.
“I can’t sit idly by and let our children and future generations of fans think this behavior is tolerated because of wealth and privilege.said the Iranian-American billionaire, who owns the second largest stake in the Suns, in an open letter obtained by theArizona Republic. Therefore, I call for the resignation of Robert Sarver”.
It must be said that the fate reserved for the owner of the Suns may seem lenient. In 2014, the NBA banned Donald Sterling, then holder of the Los Angeles Clippers, for life after the publication of private recordings in which he made racist remarks. The 88-year-old businessman was thus forced to sell the California franchise and pay a $2.5 million fine.
Further up the West Coast, Portland basketball operations president Neil Olshey was fired in December 2021 for establishing a toxic work environment at the Oregon franchise.
Asked about a possible lack of severity in the Sarver affair, NBA boss Adam Silver fully assumed this decision. “The behavior is indefensible and I think we have shown fairness. I have no right to remove him from this franchise”he said on Thursday.
“We could have started a process of leaving against Robert Sarver but I finally made the decision not to go that far”added the leader, explaining that he “had access to information that the public does not have” and that he “was able to judge the overall facts” in this file.
