Allegations of racism and misogyny within the Phoenix Suns: Inside Robert Sarver's 17-year tenure as owner

[Indy]

same here, but I can't like it more than once.

There are also a lot of former employees of the Suns on twiiter (not executives, but working people) that are echoing a lot of the comments in the article, and saying that was just the tip of the ice berg.

[Mori Chu]

Raja Bell had some interesting comments about Sarver on his Ringer NBA podcast. He said that Sarver was a jerk to him about getting a contract extension (hmmmmm), and that Sarver was rude to him and his wife after they had a pregnancy end in a miscarriage. Sarver supposedly gave them a hard time because Raja left and missed a game(s) to be with his grieving wife.

(What an asshole.)

[Mori Chu]

Who was it here who had that shirtless Sarver as their avatar for a long time? My eyes are still recovering from it.

‘Bazz. I had to beg him to take it down.

This is a hatchet job!

Your new avatar seems quite appropriate right now.

[Nodack]

TBH this isn't enjoyable at all and this lifelong Suns fan is thinking about not giving a shit about the team while all of this nastiness is sorted out.

I am not going to hold Sarvers actions against the team. These guys have worked hard to get where they are and deserve our support. This certainly isn’t enjoyable for them either and probably affects them even more. I hope they can stay focused on their jobs and not this circus. One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch…

I don’t think there is anyone who is a fan of Sarver on this board. I would be happy if another Colangelo took over the team but, this whole thing kind of stinks to me. The timing for one thing. These employees had a long time to report any of the stuff written and not one person filed a grievance since Sarver has been here. We miss the playoffs ten years straight and then we go to the Finals. Now this comes out? I can’t help but to feel there is some sort of politics being played out here.

[JeremyG]

It was originally scheduled to be released at the end of the regular season, before they had any playoff success. And it’s been in the works much longer than that. It has nothing to do with the team’s success.

[JeremyG]

Even Sarver’s admissions are telling. He says he didn’t know that it was inappropriate to pull down a guy’s pants in front of 60 employees, and that he had to be informed later that it was not appropriate behavior. I believe the dude is fully capable of incriminating himself if the investigators speak to him long enough, lol.

[JeremyG]

Any claims of diversity can be debunked just by looking at this page lol: https://www.datanyze.com/companies/phoe ... s/52904759

[JeremyG]

https://arizonasports.com/story/2880686 ... d-culture/

“In addition, I have never seen nor heard Robert make any statements that I experienced as racist, sexist or misogynistic.”

…says Robert’s old white male friend.

[Superbone]

Who was it here who had that shirtless Sarver as their avatar for a long time? My eyes are still recovering from it.

‘Bazz. I had to beg him to take it down.

This is a hatchet job!

Your new avatar seems quite appropriate right now.

Except that they should be spraying down Sarver.

[Mori Chu]

Even Sarver’s admissions are telling. He says he didn’t know that it was inappropriate to pull down a guy’s pants in front of 60 employees, and that he had to be informed later that it was not appropriate behavior. I believe the dude is fully capable of incriminating himself if the investigators speak to him long enough, lol.

I think Sarver does himself a disservice by diving into rebutting or denying each individual accusation made in the article. If you're explaining all the details about why you pantsed some guy or why you talked about wanting to say the N-word or why you asked some guy about shaving his balls, you're already losing. I think you do better with a short general statement admitting that you made some mistakes or jokes or off-color comments and apologizing for them, and indicating that you didn't intend any racist or sexist behavior and want to promote a diverse and inclusive atmosphere in the organization. Something like that.

[Superbone]

These employees had a long time to report any of the stuff written and not one person filed a grievance since Sarver has been here.

You make it sound like this is an easy thing to do. If you value your job, you don't push back in fear of retaliation. That's the power advantage that Sarver gets off on. He likes to own you and make you uncomfortable.

[jonh]

As much as this reinforces my thoughts about who Sarver is as a person, I didn't see much in the report that would lead me to have confidence that Sarver will be ousted. It's possible that more allegations will be substantiated, but I think the only way that this ends with a new majority owner is if Jahm Najafi makes some type of public push to become the majority owner and remove Sarver.

[jonh]

Even Sarver’s admissions are telling. He says he didn’t know that it was inappropriate to pull down a guy’s pants in front of 60 employees, and that he had to be informed later that it was not appropriate behavior. I believe the dude is fully capable of incriminating himself if the investigators speak to him long enough, lol.

I think Sarver does himself a disservice by diving into rebutting or denying each individual accusation made in the article. If you're explaining all the details about why you pantsed some guy or why you talked about wanting to say the N-word or why you asked some guy about shaving his balls, you're already losing. I think you do better with a short general statement admitting that you made some mistakes or jokes or off-color comments and apologizing for them, and indicating that you didn't intend any racist or sexist behavior and want to promote a diverse and inclusive atmosphere in the organization. Something like that.

I think you are right--a brief, blanket statement would have been better here. However, it sounds like Sarver is more than willing to get into the nitty gritty of petty squabbles, and would want to respond to each accusation even when he doesn't need to.

[Cap]

[Shabazz]

Who was it here who had that shirtless Sarver as their avatar for a long time? My eyes are still recovering from it.

‘Bazz. I had to beg him to take it down.

This is a hatchet job!

Your new avatar seems quite appropriate right now.

Except that they should be spraying down Sarver.

They are.

[SunsRIt]

I’m not sure what to think about this whole thing. Is Sarver an idiot? Yes. Is he racist? To a degree maybe. Does he not know limits? Definitely. In many instances he doesn’t seem to get what is socially acceptable and what is not.

I have a real problem with Corliss Williamson jumping from being confronted about job performance to race. I saw nothing racist about an owner questioning a coach about a stat sheet. Black or white. In my opinion any owner that actually cares about his team might do the same thing. It makes me wonder if he was bated into that response somehow. I would like to hear the whole conversation, not just what the reporter chose use.

[Drewsprocket]

Raja dunking on Sarver on ringer. He makes a great point about how people underperforming in cultures made by Sarver. He described his wife being offended by Sarver on an airplane by some really insensitive comments following her miscarriage. None of it is sanctionable. But a testament to what an arrogant POS he is. It sounds like players just play in spite of who their team owners are.
His 7 yr old taking up a seat bouncing out a player of their seat on the plane, cuz his Dad is the owner.

[JeremyG]

I just had a thought: Imagine what would have happened if Sarver had pantsed a female employee. Are we still discriminating too much based on gender, in the sense that it is treated more lightly if it's a male employee?

[JeremyG]

Oh of course the Heckmann family has neeeverrr experienced any evidence that Robert is sexist before!

"You merging on a SPAC or are you lining up a hooker over there? What are you doing? It's a goddamned memorial service! Christ. Hahahahahah. I’m going to guess his receptionist has small tits."

https://www.truehoop.com/p/video-robert ... a-memorial

[Superbone]

‘Bazz. I had to beg him to take it down.

This is a hatchet job!

Your new avatar seems quite appropriate right now.

Except that they should be spraying down Sarver.

They are.

Whoops! How'd I miss that. I was thinking they were hosing down your old dumpster fire.