NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shot himself in the foot. Most people around the league— including the players— thought he’d force Robert Sarver to sell the Phoenix Sunsas it happened with Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Instead, all that happened was just a slap on the wrist. Sarver was fined $10 million— which is pocket change for a guy who’s worth over $800 million— and suspended one year from the NBA and WNBA.
The league’s investigations found that Sarver had repeatedly engaged in demeaning and disrespectful behavior towards women, used racist and sexist behavior (including saying the N-word multiple times), emailed pornography to his staff, and even dropped his underwear in front of a staff member.
NBA News: Chris Paul Criticizes The League Over Robert Sarver’s Sanctions
Needless to say, the league’s sanctions seem quite insufficient, all things considered. That’s why Suns star Chris Paul joined LeBron James and called the NBA out for not taking stronger actions against him:
“Like many others, I reviewed the report. I was and am horrified and disappointed by what I read. This conduct especially towards women is unacceptable and must never be repeated,” Paul tweeted.
“I am of the view that the sanctions fell short in truly addressing what we can all agree was atrocious behavior. My heart goes out to all of the people that were affected,” the veteran added.
Silver Says The Punishment Was Fair
On the other hand, Adam Silver stands by his word. He said that, although Sarver’s behavior was indefensible, he didn’t have enough power to force him to sell the team, and the punishment was fair enough:
“Let me reiterate: the conduct was indefensible,” Silver said. “But I felt we dealt with it in a fair manner in both taking into account the totality of the circumstances, not just those particular applications but the 18 years Mr. Sarver has owned the Suns and Mercury.”
“And ultimately, we made a judgment, I made a judgment that in the circumstances in which he had used that language and that behavior while, as I said it was indefensible, it’s not strong enough,” the Commissioner added.“It’s beyond the pale in every possible way to use language and behave that way but that was wholly of a different content than what we saw in that earlier case.”
The league definitely got this one wrong. There’s no place for that in the workplace, let alone a league that’s supposed to be a beacon and a standard for a better world. I’m sorry, Mr. Silver, but David Stern would never.
