NBA Fines and Suspends Phoenix Suns Owner for Misconduct

Sometimes people forget who they are, where they are and who they are speaking to or about. They lose perspective on what is ok to do or say. Outsized economic power over others can exacerbate their tendencies in that direction, creating a false sense that they are not subject to the same rules of common, acceptable workplace behavior as everyone else.  NBA Fines and Suspends Phoenix Suns Owner for Misconduct

That mistake of judgement just took a big hit in the case of Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns.


Phoenix Suns, Mercury owner Robert Sarver’s misconduct leads to fine, suspension: What we know

Jeff Zillgitt

USA TODAY

Robert Sarver is wealthy and in a position of power, and because of that, he thought he could do and say things without consequence.

And he probably did in workplace environments not related to the NBA and WNBA.

But as owner of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, Sarver must follow workplace norms, and a 10-month investigation into Sarver’s conduct revealed he violated common workplace standards.

“This conduct included the use of racially insensitive language; unequal treatment of female employees; sex-related statements and conduct; and harsh treatment of employees that on occasion constituted bullying,” the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz wrote of Sarver in a comprehensive and unflattering 36-page report.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has dealt with three serious investigations into team ownership since taking over for David Stern in 2014, delivered a significant penalty, fining Sarver $10 million and suspending him from all Suns and Mercury activities for one year.

It is the second-harshest penalty for an NBA owner following former Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling’s lifetime ban, fine and forced sale of the team.

Sarver, according to reports, had the gall to bristle at the punishment. He’s lucky he didn’t receive the Sterling treatment.

Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver shown during a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 28, 2022.

What were the key findings in the report?

Sarver used the N-word on at least five occasions – mostly recently in 2017. Each time, Sarver said he was just saying what someone else said, and he was told by others that he can’t say that word even in recounting what someone else said.

He “engaged in instances of inequitable conduct toward female employees, made many sex-related comments in the workplace, made inappropriate comments about the physical appearance of female employees and other women, and on several occasions, engaged in inappropriate physical conduct toward male employees, according to the investigation.

He told a pregnant employee she would be unable to do her job upon becoming a mother and made comments about women crying too much.

Sarver also cursed and yelled at employees and on occasion bullied workers.

Why isn’t he being forced to sell the Suns and Mercury?

A key phrase in the report said, “the investigation makes no finding that Sarver’s conduct was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.”

In the Sterling case, there was clear racial animus, and Sterling double-downed on his comments, entrenching himself in an untenable position.

N.B.A. Fines and Suspends Phoenix Suns Owner for Misconduct

N.B.A. Fines and Suspends Phoenix Suns Owner for Misconduct


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