Sarver ESPN story

[Slim Charless]

I'd say the fact that this story got white washed by his legal team is clear evidence that attempts at forcing him out would be met with retaliation. Without emails or recordings I doubt Sarver goes anywhere anyways. It will be interesting to see how the league, team, and even other players respond though.

Dude. You realize he used the N-word in front of his black coach multiple times in reference to another black player-a vocal HOFer at that?

They have guys worth 5X as much as Booby waiting(begging) to be NBA owners. You think the league isn't gonna use everything in their power to force his hand on this?

I hope the league tries. My concern is making him sell is a legal matter and if this goes to a court it's a lot of he said/she said and I just don't know if there's anything I read that would cause a court to force someone to sell.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

That's a ton of bad press for him and even if he wins, what does that say to his players? Think DA, Booker or CP3 will be making any pro-Sarver statements anytime soon?

Compare that to taking a 2-4 billion check from someone (160 Billion dollar man Larry Ellison plz) and going to live his life doing whatever it is that he does. If he sells our team, I bet it's a record. He'll get more than Sterling got for the Clippers.

[Slim Charless]

Well, here we go

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Lets put these in a different thread this time so they don't get co-mingled with our discussion of the team, players and what we think of that stuff.

...didn't we have one...and someone moved all the discussion to here?

[bwgood77]

Skimed the article and honestly this is kind of the **** scenario because I have little doubt Sarver is an ass and some/most/all is true but I'm not sure I really see anything that actually provable and would be reason to force him out.


Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

You’d be surprised…look at what got Jon Gruden and Donald Sterling ousted.

You're talking email documentation and videos though..this is he said/she said.

I'd like him gone and replaced with an owner that will pay deep into the tax, but who knows if that would even happen?

Anyway, there are too many allegations for all of it to be untrue, but this stuff is curious...and of course at the very end:

Suns chief financial officer and general manager of the Phoenix Mercury Jim Pitman said, "[Sarver] has been consistently on the side of women and the WNBA." Executive director for Phoenix Suns charities and vice president of social responsibility Sarah Krahenbuhl said, "[Sarver's] not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but how he pushes us is for the greater good."

Lon Babby, Suns president of basketball operations from 2010 to 2015, said: "Robert is surely a demanding and, at times, difficult manager to work for. But I can tell you as assuredly that he is not in any way shape or form a racist or guilty of any kind of sexual harassment or mistreatment of women."

Golden State coach Steve Kerr helped introduce Sarver to former NBA commissioner David Stern before Sarver bought the Suns in 2004. After serving as a consultant, Kerr was named the team's general manager in 2007, a position he left in 2010. He hasn't worked with the Suns in any capacity since that time. Kerr was a minority owner of the team from 2004 to 2014 when he divested a less-than-1% stake to coach the Warriors.

Of their time together from 2004 to 2010, Kerr told ESPN: "I never saw anything that suggested racism or misogyny, and I was very surprised to hear those allegations because that's not the person that I know."

[WeekapaugGroove]

Dude. You realize he used the N-word in front of his black coach multiple times in reference to another black player-a vocal HOFer at that?

They have guys worth 5X as much as Booby waiting(begging) to be NBA owners. You think the league isn't gonna use everything in their power to force his hand on this?

I hope the league tries. My concern is making him sell is a legal matter and if this goes to a court it's a lot of he said/she said and I just don't know if there's anything I read that would cause a court to force someone to sell.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

That's a ton of bad press for him and even if he wins, what does that say to his players? Think DA, Booker or CP3 will be making any pro-Sarver statements anytime soon?

Compare that to taking a 2-4 billion check from someone (160 Billion dollar man Larry Ellison plz) and going to live his life doing whatever it is that he does. If he sells our team, I bet it's a record. He'll get more than Sterling got for the Clippers.

Oh yeah if he had any self awareness he would sell and enjoy his profits. But if he had that he wouldn't be in this mess.

This all really sucks, having a bad owner is the worst thing for a sports fan.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[Bogyo]

Sarver needs to go. Scumbag was using the "N" word? In a league with 90% black men? POS

Larry Ellison, come on down.

All of us need to be sending thank you tweets to ESPN/Baxter Holmes.

This. Is. Our. Moment.

I'd give my left nut if Ellison was our owner instead of Bobby.
But I think the "N" word part is kinda weak in the story (and the whole story is watered down / whitewashed by ESPN), and I don't really think it can be proven. Maybe 1-2 guys words against his, and his peers... Exactley the same reason why ESPN came out with it late, and included his response to every allegation. They knew (or their lawyers told them) that this will not fly in court. At all, or only after 5 years of legal battle, and even that might not be a clear cut victory...
I hoped it will be something more concrete, and he will be forced to sell, but I don't really see it...

[Revived]

I just finished reading that ridiculously long article. My overall conclusion is that Sarver’s a complete **** to work for (something I already knew because I have two friends that have worked for the Suns in the past) and a big time micromanager. But honestly there’s not enough in there to come close to the league kicking him out. I would love for it to happen though but I don’t think toxic workplace alone will warrant it.

At most, he will get hit with like a $2 million fine or something. And in order to make up for that money, he will be even cheaper with the way he runs the team in the future. So at the end of the day, the fans end up being the ones to suffer lol.

[Revived]

Read on Twitter

Anyone listen to this?

[Bogyo]

I just finished reading that ridiculously long article. My overall conclusion is that Sarver’s a complete **** to work for (something I already knew because I have two friends that have worked for the Suns in the past) and a big time micromanager. But honestly there’s not enough in there to come close to the league kicking him out. I would love for it to happen though but I don’t think toxic workplace alone will warrant it.

At most, he will get hit with like a $2 million fine or something. And in order to make up for that money, he will be even cheaper with the way he runs the team in the future. So at the end of the day, the fans end up being the ones to suffer lol.

Fully agreed. ESPN, what a sht job, what a sht article. Congratulations, you managed to make things worse.
Anyone who followed the NBA in the for some time know that Sarver is like that. What's new?

[Jdiddy701]

Read on Twitter

Anyone listen to this?

Listening to it now, almost done - no new information, they’re just going over the article


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slim Charless]

I just finished reading that ridiculously long article. My overall conclusion is that Sarver’s a complete **** to work for (something I already knew because I have two friends that have worked for the Suns in the past) and a big time micromanager. But honestly there’s not enough in there to come close to the league kicking him out. I would love for it to happen though but I don’t think toxic workplace alone will warrant it.

At most, he will get hit with like a $2 million fine or something. And in order to make up for that money, he will be even cheaper with the way he runs the team in the future. So at the end of the day, the fans end up being the ones to suffer lol.

Fully agreed. ESPN, what a sht job, what a sht article. Congratulations, you managed to make things worse.
Anyone who followed the NBA in the for some time know that Sarver is like that. What's new?

You guys are missing the point. This is most likely a hit piece from the other owners/league. They all want him gone. Sterling didn't sell because he was embarrassed about what happened, he sold because his fellow billionaires and Stern pressed him to. The rich don't care what the likes of me and you guys think, they care about their opinion of the fellow rich people think.

He's gonna be forced to sell.....for a MASSIVE profit, but still. Forced to sell.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I just finished reading that ridiculously long article. My overall conclusion is that Sarver’s a complete **** to work for (something I already knew because I have two friends that have worked for the Suns in the past) and a big time micromanager. But honestly there’s not enough in there to come close to the league kicking him out. I would love for it to happen though but I don’t think toxic workplace alone will warrant it.

At most, he will get hit with like a $2 million fine or something. And in order to make up for that money, he will be even cheaper with the way he runs the team in the future. So at the end of the day, the fans end up being the ones to suffer lol.

Fully agreed. ESPN, what a sht job, what a sht article. Congratulations, you managed to make things worse.
Anyone who followed the NBA in the for some time know that Sarver is like that. What's new?

You guys are missing the point. This is most likely a hit piece from the other owners/league. They all want him gone. Sterling didn't sell because he was embarrassed about what happened, he sold because his fellow billionaires and Stern pressed him to. The rich don't care what the likes of me and you guys think, they care about their opinion of the fellow rich people think.

He's gonna be forced to sell.....for a MASSIVE profit, but still. Forced to sell.

But everyone hated Sterling for decades and there was plenty of this kind of stuff floating around him and yet it took him actually being on tape saying bad **** for them to be able to do anything about it. And even then some owners were uneasy about setting a president on removing an owner.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[Bogyo]

I just finished reading that ridiculously long article. My overall conclusion is that Sarver’s a complete **** to work for (something I already knew because I have two friends that have worked for the Suns in the past) and a big time micromanager. But honestly there’s not enough in there to come close to the league kicking him out. I would love for it to happen though but I don’t think toxic workplace alone will warrant it.

At most, he will get hit with like a $2 million fine or something. And in order to make up for that money, he will be even cheaper with the way he runs the team in the future. So at the end of the day, the fans end up being the ones to suffer lol.

Fully agreed. ESPN, what a sht job, what a sht article. Congratulations, you managed to make things worse.
Anyone who followed the NBA in the for some time know that Sarver is like that. What's new?

You guys are missing the point. This is most likely a hit piece from the other owners/league. They all want him gone. Sterling didn't sell because he was embarrassed about what happened, he sold because his fellow billionaires and Stern pressed him to. The rich don't care what the likes of me and you guys think, they care about their opinion of the fellow rich people think.

He's gonna be forced to sell.....for a MASSIVE profit, but still. Forced to sell.

God bless you Slim, I hope you are right.
But I don't believe you are.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Yup. And the ironic part is his ego and just general **** personality that got him into this mess will lead him to dig in his heels and fight this. And when it comes to ousting an owner there's a legal aspect and unless there's more proof than is being presented I'm not sure a court would actually make him sell.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

I'd say the fact that this story got white washed by his legal team is clear evidence that attempts at forcing him out would be met with retaliation. Without emails or recordings I doubt Sarver goes anywhere anyways. It will be interesting to see how the league, team, and even other players respond though.

Yup. The avenue where this article leads to him gone is I would imagine the NBA will now do an investigation and maybe they then find the smoking gun.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[bwgood77]

I hope he is forced to sell, but this is mostly he said/she said and the stuff is bad, but anonymous and nothing real concrete. Then you have Jones, Kerr, Babby and others saying they never saw any of this, covering a span from 2004-2015. It's mostly Watson and McD (the Igor stuff probably came from him).

[Jdiddy701]

I’ll say this again: we are screwed if the NBA doesn’t ban him. Can you really see a free agent wanting to play in Phoenix if Sarver is still the owner? Come on Adam Silver!!! Get rid of this clown.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slim Charless]

Fully agreed. ESPN, what a sht job, what a sht article. Congratulations, you managed to make things worse.
Anyone who followed the NBA in the for some time know that Sarver is like that. What's new?

You guys are missing the point. This is most likely a hit piece from the other owners/league. They all want him gone. Sterling didn't sell because he was embarrassed about what happened, he sold because his fellow billionaires and Stern pressed him to. The rich don't care what the likes of me and you guys think, they care about their opinion of the fellow rich people think.

He's gonna be forced to sell.....for a MASSIVE profit, but still. Forced to sell.

But everyone hated Sterling for decades and there was plenty of this kind of stuff floating around him and yet it took him actually being on tape saying bad **** for them to be able to do anything about it. And even then some owners were uneasy about setting a president on removing an owner.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

It's a different world. What flew in the 80s and 90s, won't fly now.

I mean, the NBA champs once boycotted a game-during the playoffs essentially....and that was after the state had arrested those cops. I think Sarver will want to fight it, but this is getting released late which makes me think that ESPN rechecked everything and it's all true.

Terrible optics if this goes to court. For the entire league and the billionaires in it.

[Slim Charless]

I hope he is forced to sell, but this is mostly he said/she said and the stuff is bad, but anonymous and nothing real concrete. Then you have Jones, Kerr, Babby and others saying they never saw any of this, covering a span from 2004-2015. It's mostly Watson and McD (the Igor stuff probably came from him).

LMAO

Jones? You mean the guy who currently works under Sarver? I'm sure he's in a real hurry to talk about his boss. What you should be looking at is his tepid, flacid defense of Sarver when he was directly asked about it.

[dremill24]

Slim Charles might literally explode... take a breath man.

[BobbieL]

I hope he is forced to sell, but this is mostly he said/she said and the stuff is bad, but anonymous and nothing real concrete. Then you have Jones, Kerr, Babby and others saying they never saw any of this, covering a span from 2004-2015. It's mostly Watson and McD (the Igor stuff probably came from him).

I don't see him having to sell the team.

Granted one of the partners is worth $3B so I am sure they can find the cash to buy old BobbyS out. Just his ego would never allow it --

[bwgood77]

I hope he is forced to sell, but this is mostly he said/she said and the stuff is bad, but anonymous and nothing real concrete. Then you have Jones, Kerr, Babby and others saying they never saw any of this, covering a span from 2004-2015. It's mostly Watson and McD (the Igor stuff probably came from him).

LMAO

Jones? You mean the guy who currently works under Sarver? I'm sure he's in a real hurry to talk about his boss. What you should be looking at is his tepid, flacid defense of Sarver when he was directly asked about it.

I don't think Jones would lie.

The main ones though are Kerr and Babby, there from 2004-2015. Lets face it, most of this just doesn't have a lot of meat to it. It's bad, but it's conflicting and all he said/she said, mostly from disgruntled employees.