Silver considered longer Sarver ban
But several key factors kept Suns owner’s suspension at year
NEW YORK — Suns owner Robert Sarver was likely spared even stronger sanctioning by the NBA for his racist, misogynistic and hostile words and actions because of one key conclusion by investigators, Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday.
The law firm that spent nearly a year digging into the situation determined Sarver’s use of slurs “was not motivated by racial animus.”
Had that not been the case, Silver indicated, Sarver’s punishment — a one-year suspension and $10 million fine — would have been far more severe.
“It was relevant,” Silver said after the league’s Board of Governors meetings concluded. “I think if they had made findings that, in fact, his conduct was motivated by racial animus, absolutely that would have had an impact on on the ultimate outcome here. But that’s not what they found.”
And that, to Silver, is one of the key distinctions between the Sarver case and the one surrounding then-Clippers owner Donald Sterling in 2014, when he was banned for life and fined $2.5 million for racist comments.
Some players, Silver said, have reached out to him to voice concerns. Silver said he would keep the conversations private.
But LeBron James took his concerns public Wednesday night, tweeting that the NBA did not go far enough with Sarver.
“I gotta be honest…Our league definitely got this wrong,” James tweeted to his 52 million followers. “... I said it before and I’m gonna say it again, there is no place in this league for that kind of 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,” he wrote.
The NBA had the option of giving Sarver a longer ban than the one-year suspension.
The $10 million fine was the maximum allowable, as was the case with Sterling’s $2.5 million fine eight years ago; NBA rules on maximum fines were changed in 2019.
A 10-month investigation into Sarver’s behavior confirmed he had used racist language, made sexually inappropriate comments, left some employees — male and female — feeling uncomfortable with his words and actions, and took part in what would be considered workplace bullying.
The league didn’t have discussions about removing Sarver as owner during the Board of Governors meetings. Silver permanently banned Sterling after tapes of him making racist comments were leaked to TMZ in a move that started the process of Sterling being forced to sell the franchise.
“This case is very different,” Silver said. “... Mr. Sarver ultimately acknowledged his behavior.”
Sarver did, and issued an apology Tuesday, though noted he didn’t agree with all of the report’s findings.
A difference between the Sterling and Sarver cases is this: Sarver cooperated with the league’s investigation and Sterling, in many ways, did not. Sterling wound up suing the NBA for $1 billion in federal court.
The report said Sarver “repeated or purported to repeat the N-word on at least five occasions in his tenure with the Suns.”
“However, the investigation does not find that Sarver’s conduct in any of these instances was motivated by racial animus,” the report read, adding that investigators made “no finding that Sarver used this racially insensitive language with the intent to demean or denigrate.”
Sarver’s punishment is similar to others levied in past high-profile examples.
In 1993, then-Reds owner Marge Schott was fined $25,000 and suspended one year for making “racially and ethnically offensive remarks.” And last year, the NFL fined the Commanders $10 million, plus investigative fees, after a probe found the team’s workplace environment for women was, in the words of Commissioner Roger Goodell, “highly unprofessional” — but stopped short of suspending owner Daniel Snyder.
The NFL said Wednesday that the league’s investigation of the Commanders and Snyder still is ongoing.