Sarver ESPN story

[bigfoot]

Its fair to put things in perspective

The maximum fine for owners under NBA bylaws is $10M. He got the max fine.

Jason Kidd plead guilty to abusing his wife. The punishment was being traded from the Suns to the Nets. No fine, no suspension.

PJ Tuckers gets a 3 game suspension for an extreme DUI.

Jason Richardson gets a 1 game suspension for felony speeding at 95mph in a 35mph zone with an unrestrained 3-year old in the back seat.

Players have routinely been suspended for physical assault of other players and fans from between 6 and 80 games with fines based on their per game salary.

In 2015, Chris Paul gets a $25000 fine for criticizing a female referee. Many felt his comments were sexist.

In 2020, Marcus Morris makes sexist comments about Jae Crowder's play. No suspension, no fine.

Questions left unanswered include how long ago in the 18-year tenure did some of these incidents happen? Also, what was the context. We don't have the full report and probably never will. Some basics on the timeline:

The most recent I could find was 5 years ago, in 2017, the Coach Watson era, with the use of the N-word. In 2010, 12-years ago Sarver asked Taylor Griffin about nut shaving. The pantsing episode in 2014 was 8 years ago. Passing around the bikini picture of his wife happened in his 1st year of ownership, 17 years ago. A lot of the women-based complaints were in the 2008 to 2012 timeframe.

Adding it all up, I don't think Silver really had the ammo to kick out Sarver like Sterling. Maybe corporate sponsors will do what Silver didn't.

[garrick]

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Silver continues to be spineless

I'm far from a Sarver apologist and have always thought of him as a major douche but as far as I know Sarver hasn't banned black people from taking out loans unlike Sterling that refused to rent properties to minorities.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2042877-a-brief-history-of-donald-sterlings-alleged-racism

Robert unlike Donald hasn't made discriminatory hiring practices either and we've been through numerous black coaches over the past 18 years and no one has said he's said he refused to hire minorities before. I do think this is less about his inappropriate sexual comments and more the fact that he's a rude POS as has been well documented before.

[HootieRules]

Nice ‘passive’ jab hoot. Throw a blanket of self righteousness over us all.

It’s clear, Sarver is this site’s Trump. People have been wanting him gone for years… and now when it looked like there was a chance, he dodged a haymaker. Booos from the crowd. And the irony is we went to the finals and set a win record. Damn him.

And btw, what’s going on in Cuban/Mav land deserves as much or more attention as there are actual assault allegations and a ‘go away and be quiet’ payoff was tendered. Sarver is just a pompous, arrogant dick, pain and simple. The guy didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He’s going to have to to change his mind about that.

Oops, there I go again…. Where’s my mirror?

It's definitely eye rolling material to watch all the unprincipled takes from players and fans alike. Oh ya you're so OUTRAGED while still cashing checks from the team or buying tickets/apparel. Nevermind the fact a guy like Lebron has built a merch empire on the backs of laborers working in places known for some of the WORST human rights violations in the world. Dude is always looking to take virtue shots at the low hanging fruit when he can like the ones at ol' Bobby today.

Sarver was clearly a misogynistic frat boy-esque douche for a long time, but racist? Stop, it's depleting brain cells trying to claim anything he said was racially charged. Doesn't even matter to me if he's here or not - clearly a lot of fans lose sleep over it. They've been foaming at the mouth to get rid of him so that this magical, hypothetical new unicorn owner can come in and spend insanely while driving up ticket prices. They're never going to let go of his prior roster/FO mishandlings.

A full year suspension is a long time away from the team he clearly loves. $10 million is a lot of money. Do people forget about redemption arcs or is it always OFF WITH HIS HEAD? All I know is this franchise/fanbase is back to being toxic again. Man that didn't take long.

There's been a laundry list of former players, executives, employees that spoke out long before hypocrites like LeBron started piling on in the last 48 hours when it became convenient. Matt Barnes, Amare Stoudemire, Amin Elhassan, Earl Watson, Jamal Crawford, Corliss Williamson, the list goes on - all spoke to Sarver's behavior before Adam Silver claimed in his press conference he was even aware. And that's just the players with a platform. Props to the employees who can't dribble and dunk who stuck their necks and careers out to speak out against this guy. Get outta here acting like this is some sort of witch hunt because he sold some draft picks 15 years ago and people have an axe to grind. It runs way, way deeper than that.

"These [N-words] need a [N-word]," Sarver said explaining to a staffer why he preferred hiring Lindsey Hunter over Dan Majerle as head coach in 2013. Sure, not a racist

And yeah, he's not a frat boy. He's a 60 year old man who bought his way into a position of power and leadership. Silver and the other owners would've ran him out of the league in a New York minute if any of this was on tape and these decisions weren't chronically crafted and manipulated by lawyers. Every single good thing that happened to this franchise happened in spite of Robert Sarver and not because of him, signing Steve Nash included. At 60 years old and after THIS? He's absolutely irredeemable when it comes to owning and managing the Suns. The franchise is toxic because of Sarver and Sarver only. And the fanbase would be united in running Sarver off and letting another scumbag billionaire take the reigns and holding them accountable too if it weren't for jackasses like you who have let their trash politics bleed into their trash sports fandom and decries and brushes aside any of the reaction with bUT CaNCel cUltURe. The reaction in the fanbase, league and media is one looking for a semblance of accountability in a sea of hypocritical and wealth-driven double standards. Off with his head? Cut him his 9 figure check and waive goodbye. He shouldn't own a franchise in a league that at least pretends to care about women and minorities. That all pales in comparison to the absolute hell he put human beings through who worked for him. Some offing.

[lilfishi22]

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Silver continues to be spineless

I'm far from a Sarver apologist and have always thought of him as a major douche but as far as I know Sarver hasn't banned black people from taking out loans unlike Sterling that refused to rent properties to minorities.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2042877-a-brief-history-of-donald-sterlings-alleged-racism

Robert unlike Donald hasn't made discriminatory hiring practices either and we've been through numerous black coaches over the past 18 years and no one has said he's said he refused to hire minorities before. I do think this is less about his inappropriate sexual comments and more the fact that he's a rude POS as has been well documented before.

Sarver at minimum is an a-hole and harasses everyone equally

Can label it whatever they want (sexist, racist, misogynist) but the fact remains, none of that is appropriate in a professional environment. The difference between Sterling and Sarver in my opinion is a perceived lack of ill-intent. Maybe he does have ill-intent but their investigation didn't come to that conclusion. I think we've seen and read enough about Sterling's business practices over the decades that the very direct recording of his evidently racist thoughts was more the cherry on the cake than a one off incident.

[lilfishi22]

Its fair to put things in perspective

The maximum fine for owners under NBA bylaws is $10M. He got the max fine.

Jason Kidd plead guilty to abusing his wife. The punishment was being traded from the Suns to the Nets. No fine, no suspension.

PJ Tuckers gets a 3 game suspension for an extreme DUI.

Jason Richardson gets a 1 game suspension for felony speeding at 95mph in a 35mph zone with an unrestrained 3-year old in the back seat.

Players have routinely been suspended for physical assault of other players and fans from between 6 and 80 games with fines based on their per game salary.

In 2015, Chris Paul gets a $25000 fine for criticizing a female referee. Many felt his comments were sexist.

In 2020, Marcus Morris makes sexist comments about Jae Crowder's play. No suspension, no fine.

Questions left unanswered include how long ago in the 18-year tenure did some of these incidents happen? Also, what was the context. We don't have the full report and probably never will. Some basics on the timeline:

The most recent I could find was 5 years ago, in 2017, the Coach Watson era, with the use of the N-word. In 2010, 12-years ago Sarver asked Taylor Griffin about nut shaving. The pantsing episode in 2014 was 8 years ago. Passing around the bikini picture of his wife happened in his 1st year of ownership, 17 years ago. A lot of the women-based complaints were in the 2008 to 2012 timeframe.

Adding it all up, I don't think Silver really had the ammo to kick out Sarver like Sterling. Maybe corporate sponsors will do what Silver didn't.

I haven't read it but the full report is public

http://www.wlrk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Phoenix-Suns-Report.pdf

Might be good reading material on the can

[SSOL]

Nice ‘passive’ jab hoot. Throw a blanket of self righteousness over us all.

It’s clear, Sarver is this site’s Trump. People have been wanting him gone for years… and now when it looked like there was a chance, he dodged a haymaker. Booos from the crowd. And the irony is we went to the finals and set a win record. Damn him.

And btw, what’s going on in Cuban/Mav land deserves as much or more attention as there are actual assault allegations and a ‘go away and be quiet’ payoff was tendered. Sarver is just a pompous, arrogant dick, pain and simple. The guy didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He’s going to have to to change his mind about that.

Oops, there I go again…. Where’s my mirror?

It's definitely eye rolling material to watch all the unprincipled takes from players and fans alike. Oh ya you're so OUTRAGED while still cashing checks from the team or buying tickets/apparel. Nevermind the fact a guy like Lebron has built a merch empire on the backs of laborers working in places known for some of the WORST human rights violations in the world. Dude is always looking to take virtue shots at the low hanging fruit when he can like the ones at ol' Bobby today.

Sarver was clearly a misogynistic frat boy-esque douche for a long time, but racist? Stop, it's depleting brain cells trying to claim anything he said was racially charged. Doesn't even matter to me if he's here or not - clearly a lot of fans lose sleep over it though. They've been foaming at the mouth to get rid of him so that this magical, hypothetical new unicorn owner can come in and spend insanely which will drive up home ticket prices to near unaffordable levels. They're never going to let go of his prior roster/FO mishandlings.

A full year suspension is a long time away from the team he clearly loves. $10 million is a lot of money. Do people forget about redemption arcs or is it always OFF WITH HIS HEAD? All I know is this franchise/fanbase is back to being toxic again. Man that didn't take long.

Again, I don’t understand these flawed arguments. Players are hypocrites if they cash checks from the Suns when they wanted a harsher punishment and the same label applies to fans that buy/wear merch with the same mindset? That doesn’t make sense. What does Sarver’s behavior, and their feelings towards the chosen punishment for that behavior, have to do with anything? It is not the players job to punish Sarver the same way it isn’t a fans. And in no way are either required to sacrifice because of that behavior. You seem to have a set of principles that you expect others to live by but at the same time, Sarver and his conduct is immune from those very same principles.

[SSOL]

Jeez y’all… it’s not like the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Crazy some think he should be forced to sell his business because of politically incorrect and rube like behavior. He didn’t hurt anybody. And what he did doesn’t sound too heinous or malicious. Just being a rich turd boss. Well, he did go from goat pranking to a depantsing… at least he has a sense of humor…

Keep moving folks, nothing more to see here

He hurt a lot of people. And anyone still defending this clown in even the slightest of passive ways after all of these years needs to look in the mirror and reevaluate how they treat other people with respect and compassion and figure it out.

Nice ‘passive’ jab hoot. Throw a blanket of self righteousness over us all.

It’s clear, Sarver is this site’s Trump. People have been wanting him gone for years… and now when it looked like there was a chance, he dodged a haymaker. Booos from the crowd. And the irony is we went to the finals and set a win record. Damn him.

And btw, what’s going on in Cuban/Mav land deserves as much or more attention as there are actual assault allegations and a ‘go away and be quiet’ payoff was tendered. Sarver is just a pompous, arrogant dick, pain and simple. The guy didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He’s going to have to to change his mind about that.

Oops, there I go again…. Where’s my mirror?

Genuine question - Do you really believe that he didn’t hurt anybody? Assuming the answer is yes, have you spoken to any of the 70+ people that came forward? Seventy.

[SSOL]

No way Sarver is the Suns owner after his suspension is over.


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Correct.

[Fo-Real]

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lol whatever Lebron

I'd rather the hypocrite just STFU about anything related to social justice

Word, get pics taken reading a book upside down trying to look smart again!!

[Fo-Real]

Read on Twitter

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Silver continues to be spineless

I'm far from a Sarver apologist and have always thought of him as a major douche but as far as I know Sarver hasn't banned black people from taking out loans unlike Sterling that refused to rent properties to minorities.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2042877-a-brief-history-of-donald-sterlings-alleged-racism

Robert unlike Donald hasn't made discriminatory hiring practices either and we've been through numerous black coaches over the past 18 years and no one has said he's said he refused to hire minorities before. I do think this is less about his inappropriate sexual comments and more the fact that he's a rude POS as has been well documented before.

Yes, to compare him to Donald Sterling is grandiose and stupid.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Read on Twitter

[Saberestar]

Phoenix Suns vice chairman and minority owner Sam Garvin has been appointed the interim governor of the team during majority owner Robert Sarver's one-year suspension, sources tell ESPN.

[Jdiddy701]

Sarver is toast. I can’t wait to hear of the Suns losing sponsors. We have to finally get rid of this guy. He’s done way too much damage to keep him as an owner. He will forever plague the Suns as long as he’s around. Now is the time.


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[bwgood77]

I wouldn't be surprised if Silver wanted to banish him and had his staff put out feelers as to how the owners would vote (since they need 23) and know that it wouldn't go through so instead gave him the harshest punishment possible.

I am not a fan of Silver but if he gave the max punishment and the owners (23 of them) needed to be on board with ousting him, then I don't know why everyone's blaming him when he gave the max punisment, unless he could have called for a vote and left it on the owners. But that could theoretically make him very unpopular with the owners...so in ways it could have been a bit political if he could have taken that road but didn't because he knew the vote would go against it and it would not be something the owners appreciated.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I wouldn't be surprised if Silver wanted to banish him and had his staff put out feelers as to how the owners would vote (since they need 23) and know that it wouldn't go through so instead gave him the harshest punishment possible.

I am not a fan of Silver but if he gave the max punishment and the owners (23 of them) needed to be on board with ousting him, then I don't know why everyone's blaming him when he gave the max punisment, unless he could have called for a vote and left it on the owners. But that could theoretically make him very unpopular with the owners...so in ways it could have been a bit political.

He gave him the highest fine but he could he have banned him for longer. Stirling got a lifetime ban.

Now I do agree with the notion he probably didn't have the votes to oust him, owners are very leery to set that presidence.

But I'm not sure he anticipated this much push back from players, media, fans. This is a **** strom that's not going away.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[bwgood77]

I wouldn't be surprised if Silver wanted to banish him and had his staff put out feelers as to how the owners would vote (since they need 23) and know that it wouldn't go through so instead gave him the harshest punishment possible.

I am not a fan of Silver but if he gave the max punishment and the owners (23 of them) needed to be on board with ousting him, then I don't know why everyone's blaming him when he gave the max punisment, unless he could have called for a vote and left it on the owners. But that could theoretically make him very unpopular with the owners...so in ways it could have been a bit political.

He gave him the highest fine but he could he have banned him for longer. Stirling got a lifetime ban.

Now I do agree with the notion he probably didn't have the votes to oust him, owners are very leery to set that presidence.

But I'm not sure he anticipated this much push back from players, media, fans. This is a **** strom that's not going away.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

Honestly if it was a 3 year suspension or whatever, I wouldn't be surprised if people were just as upset. I think they basically wanted him to be forced to sell.

[starbosa10]

And they appointed his lackey as governor lol typical

[WeekapaugGroove]

I wouldn't be surprised if Silver wanted to banish him and had his staff put out feelers as to how the owners would vote (since they need 23) and know that it wouldn't go through so instead gave him the harshest punishment possible.

I am not a fan of Silver but if he gave the max punishment and the owners (23 of them) needed to be on board with ousting him, then I don't know why everyone's blaming him when he gave the max punisment, unless he could have called for a vote and left it on the owners. But that could theoretically make him very unpopular with the owners...so in ways it could have been a bit political.

He gave him the highest fine but he could he have banned him for longer. Stirling got a lifetime ban.

Now I do agree with the notion he probably didn't have the votes to oust him, owners are very leery to set that presidence.

But I'm not sure he anticipated this much push back from players, media, fans. This is a **** strom that's not going away.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

Honestly if it was a 3 year suspension or whatever, I wouldn't be surprised if people were just as upset. I think they basically wanted him to be forced to sell.

Sure but longer the suspension the higher likelihood he actually would sell. What use is having a toy you can't play with?

I don't think things will be right with this franchise until he sells. If he digs his heels in and comes back next year this franchise is toast. Like royally ****.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[Years90Suns]

Two important implications for me on this matter:

1. How all this affected the desire of KD to play here. Undoubtfully, he had some information on the subject and for sure this had some influence on his actions and his decision not to make a drama to get out of the Nets.
2. How this could affect our next season. Could the NBA favor the officiating against us or in our favor, to show that we win a ring just when Sarver is not with the franchise?

[starbosa10]

Nice ‘passive’ jab hoot. Throw a blanket of self righteousness over us all.

It’s clear, Sarver is this site’s Trump. People have been wanting him gone for years… and now when it looked like there was a chance, he dodged a haymaker. Booos from the crowd. And the irony is we went to the finals and set a win record. Damn him.

And btw, what’s going on in Cuban/Mav land deserves as much or more attention as there are actual assault allegations and a ‘go away and be quiet’ payoff was tendered. Sarver is just a pompous, arrogant dick, pain and simple. The guy didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He’s going to have to to change his mind about that.

Oops, there I go again…. Where’s my mirror?

It's definitely eye rolling material to watch all the unprincipled takes from players and fans alike. Oh ya you're so OUTRAGED while still cashing checks from the team or buying tickets/apparel. Nevermind the fact a guy like Lebron has built a merch empire on the backs of laborers working in places known for some of the WORST human rights violations in the world. Dude is always looking to take virtue shots at the low hanging fruit when he can like the ones at ol' Bobby today.

Sarver was clearly a misogynistic frat boy-esque douche for a long time, but racist? Stop, it's depleting brain cells trying to claim anything he said was racially charged. Doesn't even matter to me if he's here or not - clearly a lot of fans lose sleep over it. They've been foaming at the mouth to get rid of him so that this magical, hypothetical new unicorn owner can come in and spend insanely while driving up ticket prices. They're never going to let go of his prior roster/FO mishandlings.

A full year suspension is a long time away from the team he clearly loves. $10 million is a lot of money. Do people forget about redemption arcs or is it always OFF WITH HIS HEAD? All I know is this franchise/fanbase is back to being toxic again. Man that didn't take long.

There's been a laundry list of former players, executives, employees that spoke out long before hypocrites like LeBron started piling on in the last 48 hours when it became convenient. Matt Barnes, Amare Stoudemire, Amin Elhassan, Earl Watson, Jamal Crawford, Corliss Williamson, the list goes on - all spoke to Sarver's behavior before Adam Silver claimed in his press conference he was even aware. And that's just the players with a platform. Props to the employees who can't dribble and dunk who stuck their necks and careers out to speak out against this guy. Get outta here acting like this is some sort of witch hunt because he sold some draft picks 15 years ago and people have an axe to grind. It runs way, way deeper than that.

"These [N-words] need a [N-word]," Sarver said explaining to a staffer why he preferred hiring Lindsey Hunter over Dan Majerle as head coach in 2013. Sure, not a racist

And yeah, he's not a frat boy. He's a 60 year old man who bought his way into a position of power and leadership. Silver and the other owners would've ran him out of the league in a New York minute if any of this was on tape and these decisions weren't chronically crafted and manipulated by lawyers. Every single good thing that happened to this franchise happened in spite of Robert Sarver and not because of him, signing Steve Nash included. At 60 years old and after THIS? He's absolutely irredeemable when it comes to owning and managing the Suns. The franchise is toxic because of Sarver and Sarver only. And the fanbase would be united in running Sarver off and letting another scumbag billionaire take the reigns and holding them accountable too if it weren't for jackasses like you who have let their trash politics bleed into their trash sports fandom and decries and brushes aside any of the reaction with bUT CaNCel cUltURe. The reaction in the fanbase, league and media is one looking for a semblance of accountability in a sea of hypocritical and wealth-driven double standards. Off with his head? Cut him his 9 figure check and waive goodbye. He shouldn't own a franchise in a league that at least pretends to care about women and minorities. That all pales in comparison to the absolute hell he put human beings through who worked for him. Some offing.

Absolutely fantastic post