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

[JeremyG]

Apparently the ownership agreement is pretty airtight about Sarver remaining the head of their group unless he is convicted of a serious crime. So I see the possible outcomes as -

A - Sarver is censured by the NBA
B - Sarver is fined by the NBA
C - Sarver is suspended by the NBA
D - Sarver steps down as Managing Partner
E - Sarver sells the franchise

I think the most likely outcome is B or C. A would be a weak response and D and E are pretty unlikely unless Sarver is tired of being the owner (but we know he revels in the attention). The league has always been loathe to suspend owners, even Mark Cuban, Ted Stepien, Donald Sterling, George Shinn and James Dolan have avoided it, so I think a fine is the most likely outcome, but I wouldn't rule out a suspension completely.

D or E won't necessarily require Sarver to be tired of being the owner. He could be greatly pressured by the public/media/league/team and/or ownership group to step down or sell.

[Split T]

Read the thread, but how do we get this guy in as the majority owner?

[JeremyG]

[JeremyG]

[ShelC]

Sucks that Monty has to answer questions like this. I suspect we'll get a lot of "hasn't been my experience with Sarver", "will wait until the investigation is complete" kinda answers from the staff and players.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Read the thread, but how do we get this guy in as the majority owner?

Very Succession-y, minus the nepotism.

[JeremyG]

[Nodack]

Confirmation? Crawford didn't officially make a comment, but he liked this tweet.

I don’t get that one. Sarver went in and started talking X’s and O’s and Jamal Crawford walked out because he didn’t want to listen to that sh-t? I get walking out. Sarver is an owner, not a coach. I can see Crawford not wanting to stick around and listen to it. I don’t see how that was racist or misogynistic. It just sounds like an annoying owner to me.

[Split T]

Ya they threw a lot of Sarver just being difficult to deal with in there as well. Not all of it was racist or misogynistic.

[Superbone]

Apparently if you’re the owner of an NBA team you can depants a 25 year old employee in front of 60+ employees and everyone will just act like it was all in good fun.

Can you imagine if a lower management-level employee did that instead of Sarver? They would have been fired immediately.

How about to Sarver. Double dog dare me?

[JeremyG]

Ya they threw a lot of Sarver just being difficult to deal with in there as well. Not all of it was racist or misogynistic.

A lot of the “other” stuff was still abusive, though, and rose above the level of “difficult.” I think they were also trying to show how much disrespect he showed the coaching staff, even going so far as to try to do their job for them.

[pickle]

I think most of us share the same feelings on this report, so I won't just keep beating this dead horse.

The one thing I do want to point out though, is that all of these accusations don't particularly paint Sarver as a racist per se, more so that he's racially insensitive, kind of like how Watson himself summarized it...

Also a little ironic that Sarver is being criticized for preferring Hunter/Watson for being black... the way he phrased it is obviously totally fucked up, but the sentiment behind it, that the league's players are predominantly black and therefore hiring a coach who can relate to them better is not inherently racist... or is he racist for assuming that just by being black Hunter/Watson automatically relate to the players better than Majerle? I'm a little confused myself on this point. I just think that we'd kill him in the court of public opinion had he insisted on Majerle over Watson too...

Obviously I hate Sarver as a team owner and based on these reports and other information we've picked up in the past as Suns fans I hate him as a person too.

[Split T]

Ya they threw a lot of Sarver just being difficult to deal with in there as well. Not all of it was racist or misogynistic.

A lot of the “other” stuff was still abusive, though, and rose above the level of “difficult.” I think they were also trying to show how much disrespect he showed the coaching staff, even going so far as to try to do their job for them.

Oh for sure…but it’s also the kind of stuff we already knew he was doing. We knew he was a pain to work with and overstepped his role and tried to control stuff. This does give us some specifics.

[Split T]

I think most of us share the same feelings on this report, so I won't just keep beating this dead horse.

The one thing I do want to point out though, is that all of these accusations don't particularly paint Sarver as a racist per se, more so that he's racially insensitive, kind of like how Watson himself summarized it...

Also a little ironic that Sarver is being criticized for preferring Hunter/Watson for being black... the way he phrased it is obviously totally fucked up, but the sentiment behind it, that the league's players are predominantly black and therefore hiring a coach who can relate to them better is not inherently racist... or is he racist for assuming that just by being black Hunter/Watson automatically relate to the players better than Majerle? I'm a little confused myself on this point. I just think that we'd kill him in the court of public opinion had he insisted on Majerle over Watson too...

Obviously I hate Sarver as a team owner and based on these reports and other information we've picked up in the past as Suns fans I hate him as a person too.

Maybe not racist in the strictest sense, but certainly racially ignorant and abusive of his white/male privilege.

[virtual9mm]

Regardless of the truth of some of these allegations, it just isn't fun dwelling on this, so you might see me and a bunch of other folks being pretty disengaged this season. And this is what I hate about all of this, it was a hatchet job.

And I am sure Rich Paul is behind a lot of this.

[Drewsprocket]

Regardless of the truth of some of these allegations, it just isn't fun dwelling on this, so you might see me and a bunch of other folks being pretty disengaged this season. And this is what I hate about all of this, it was a hatchet job.

And I am sure Rich Paul is behind a lot of this.

Dude, did you just crawl out of a time capsule from the 50’s?

You call being depantsed a hatchet job? Or Telling staff they “own you”? Telling a coach to fire their agent or they’re fired a hatchet job? Telling people in a mtg you wear Magnum condoms? Or sending pics of your wife in a bikini? Telling staff they should get strippers pregnant by players to keep them around? Drop Nwords in contexts you think is acceptable?

[JeremyG]

I love the photo they chose of Sarver.

[Superbone]

I think most of us share the same feelings on this report, so I won't just keep beating this dead horse.

The one thing I do want to point out though, is that all of these accusations don't particularly paint Sarver as a racist per se, more so that he's racially insensitive, kind of like how Watson himself summarized it...

Also a little ironic that Sarver is being criticized for preferring Hunter/Watson for being black... the way he phrased it is obviously totally fucked up, but the sentiment behind it, that the league's players are predominantly black and therefore hiring a coach who can relate to them better is not inherently racist... or is he racist for assuming that just by being black Hunter/Watson automatically relate to the players better than Majerle? I'm a little confused myself on this point. I just think that we'd kill him in the court of public opinion had he insisted on Majerle over Watson too...

Obviously I hate Sarver as a team owner and based on these reports and other information we've picked up in the past as Suns fans I hate him as a person too.

Did you not catch the part where he used the N-word? That is your controversy. Not saying a black coach relates better to black players.

[Superbone]

I love the photo they chose of Sarver.

Like I said before, Sarver has resting asshole face. It's hard to find a photo where he doesn't look like that.

[JeremyG]

I love the photo they chose of Sarver.

Like I said before, Sarver has resting asshole face. It's hard to find a photo where he doesn't look like that.

How about this one?