NEW YORK –
Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver was likely spared even stronger NBA sanctions for his racist, misogynistic and hostile words and actions based on a key investigator conclusion, Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday.
The law firm, which dealt with the situation for nearly a year, found that Sarver’s use of insults “was not motivated by racial animus.”
If he hadn’t, Silver said Sarver’s sentence — a one-year ban and a $10 million fine — would have been far more severe.
“It was relevant,” Silver said after the conclusion of the league’s Board of Governors meetings. “I think if they had determined that his behavior was indeed motivated by racist animus, that would have absolutely had an impact on the final outcome here. But they didn’t find that.”
And that, for Silver, is one of the key differences between the Sarver case and the case involving then-Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in 2014, when he was banned for life and fined $2.5 million for making racist remarks .
Some players, Silver said, have reached out to him to raise concerns. Silver said he will keep the details of those talks private.
But LeBron James — apparently one of the league’s most prominent player voices of all time — took his concerns public on Wednesday night, tweeting that the NBA hadn’t gone far enough with Sarver.
“I have to be honest our league definitely got it wrong,” James tweeted to his 52 million followers. “I don’t have to explain why. They all read the stories and decide for themselves. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s no place for that kind of behavior in this league.
“I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But that’s not right. Misogyny, sexism and racism have no place in any workplace. Whether you own the team or play for the team. We hold up our league as an example of our values and it’s not,” he wrote.
Suns point guard Chris Paul echoed James’ sentiment on Wednesday.
“Like many others, I reviewed the report,” Paul wrote on social media. “I was and am appalled and disappointed by what I read. This behavior, especially towards women, is unacceptable and must never be repeated. … My view is that the sanctions did not really address what we all agree was cruel behavior. My heart goes out to all the people who were affected.”
The NBA had the option of granting Sarver a longer ban than the one-year suspension. The $10 million fine was the maximum allowable, as was Sterling’s $2.5 million fine eight years ago; The NBA rules on maximum penalties were changed in 2019.
Another reason why Silver, who ultimately decided the sentence in this case, refrained from extending Sarver’s suspension or even banning him: He said he considered a number of anonymous details that could not be disclosed in the investigative report that was released on Tuesday, along with other elements of Sarver’s actions in his 18 years of ownership of the Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
“There were these horrible things,” Silver said. “There are also many, many people who have very positive things to say about him during this process. And ultimately, I took all of that into account when deciding that the one-year ban plus the fine was reasonable.”
A 10-month investigation into Sarver’s behavior confirmed that he had used racist language, made sexually inappropriate comments, made some employees – male and female – uncomfortable with his words and actions, and engaged in what would be considered workplace bullying .
“Unstoppable isn’t strong enough,” Silver said.
But the league had no discussions about removing Sarver as an owner during Board of Governors meetings. Silver permanently banned Sterling after tapes of him making racist comments were leaked to TMZ, beginning the process of Sterling being forced to sell the franchise.
“This case is very different,” Silver said. “It’s not like one got on tape and the other didn’t. … Mr. Sarver ultimately acknowledged his behavior.”
Sarver did so and apologized on Tuesday, although he noted he did not agree with all of the report’s findings.
Silver was asked how likely it is that most employees at a company would expect to be fired if they used racial slurs or participated in indecent actions or comments, as the research showed Sarver did.
“It’s hard to make these comparisons with someone who is somewhat anonymously committing an inappropriate act in the workplace to what is now a major public issue around that person,” Silver said. “There is no proper answer here other than the rights that come with owning an NBA team, as set out in our constitution. It would be a very complicated process to get this team out of their control and it is different than holding a job. It’s easy. When you actually own a team, it’s just a whole different matter.
One difference between the Sterling and Sarver cases is this: Sarver cooperated with the league investigation and Sterling did not in many ways. Sterling sued the NBA in federal court for $1 billion after his lifetime ban was announced, saying his constitutional rights had been violated.
The report said Sarver “repeated or allegedly repeated the N-word at least five times during his tenure with the Suns.”
“However, the investigation did not find that Sarver’s behavior in any of these cases was motivated by racial animosity,” the report said, adding that investigators “did not make any determination that Sarver used this racially insensitive language with the intent to . . demean or disparage.”
The investigation into Sterling – from the release of the tapes on which he made racist remarks towards a girlfriend to Silver’s announcement of a lifetime ban – lasted three days. The Sarver investigation lasted 100 times longer, involved more than 320 interviews and reviewed more than 80,000 documents and other materials.
Both studies were conducted by the same New York-based company, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz. Attorney David Anders led both investigations.
Sarver will be welcome back in 2023, although Silver made it clear his words and actions will be scrutinized going forward.
“I have no right to take his team away from him,” Silver said. “I don’t want to rest on that legal point because of course there could be a process to take away from someone’s team in this league. It’s very complicated, and I ultimately made the decision that it didn’t go to that level. But for me the consequences here for Mr. Sarver are grave.”
Sarver’s punishment is also similar to others meted out in previous high-profile examples of misconduct, either in words, deeds, or both.
In 1993, Marge Schott, then-owner of the Cincinnati Reds, was fined $25,000 and suspended for a year for making “racially and ethnically objectionable remarks.” And last year, the NFL fined the Washington Commanders $10 million plus investigation fees after an investigation found the team’s working environment for women was, in the words of Commissioner Roger Goodell, “highly unprofessional” – but she stopped short of to suspend owner Daniel Snyder.