Robert Sarver and the Phoenix Suns situation

[Marcus]

Allegations of racism and misogyny, among others. We heard whisperings of a bombshell story that was going to drop about Robert Sarver and the Suns org, and well… here it is.

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

An ESPN investigation, featuring interviews with more than 70 current and former Suns employees, reveals accusations of racism and misogyny against owner Robert Sarver -- and a toxic workplace many employees believe his behavior emboldened.

www.espn.com

So, how long til he’s forced to sell?

 

[Marcus]

Some highlights:

"The level of misogyny and racism is beyond the pale," one Suns co-owner said about Sarver. "It's embarrassing as an owner."

Said a former Suns basketball executive: "There's literally nothing you could tell me about him from a misogynistic or race standpoint that would surprise me."

After the loss, Suns majority owner Robert Sarver entered the coaches locker room, Watson told ESPN.

"You know, why does Draymond Green get to run up the court and say [N-word]," Sarver, who is white, allegedly said, repeating the N-word several times in a row.

"You can't say that," Watson, who is Black and Hispanic, told Sarver.

"Why?" Sarver replied. "Draymond Green says [N-word]."

"You can't f---ing say that," Watson said again.

Current and former Suns employees told ESPN that Sarver is known to say he is "brutal to work for," a line he has repeated over the years, even in job interviews. Sarver has told executives they were "paid a lot of money to put up with my s---."

"If the commissioner comes in and investigates to see what the f--- is going on in Phoenix," one current business operations employee told ESPN, "[he] would be appalled."

Sarver once used the N-word when trying to explain to a staffer why he preferred hiring Lindsey Hunter over Dan Majerle as head coach in 2013, according to a high-level executive who heard the remark. Hunter was a first-year Suns player development coordinator while Majerle was in his fifth year as a Suns associate head coach.

"These [N-words] need a [N-word]," Sarver told the staffer of his largely Black team, according to the executive.

Before the 2017-18 season, a tense front-office situation provided another glimpse into interactions with Sarver employees felt were racially insensitive. Late in the previous season, point guard Eric Bledsoe had been benched in a tanking effort led by Sarver, former basketball operations staffers said. Issues with the benching percolated into the offseason, when Bledsoe was eligible for a contract extension.

Contract talks eventually led Bledsoe's Klutch Sports agent, Rich Paul, to communicate directly with Sarver -- the Suns owner didn't want to extend Bledsoe's contract in part due to concerns about Bledsoe's durability, plus concerns that the team had performed poorly with him as the starting point guard, according to sources at the time. Paul responded to Sarver's remarks by saying that he knew basketball and that they "weren't talking about tennis," Sarver's childhood sport.

Sarver erupted at the dig, according to two people with knowledge of the interaction, telling Paul he was going to fire Watson as the team's head coach if Watson didn't sever ties with Klutch, which had been representing Watson, within 10 days - just after the start of the season.

Watson said that Sarver's ultimatum quickly reached him. He asked Sarver if he was serious.

"Yeah, I will f---ing fire you," Sarver told Watson. "You have 10 days to think about it. Don't wait too long."

Watson said he explained to Sarver the optics of a white owner asking a Black coach to fire an agency led by a Black agent, Paul.

"Yeah, I understand what race you two are," Sarver replied, according to Watson. "So I'm asking you, How bad do you want your job?"

Watson said he told Sarver that he wasn't going to fire Klutch.

"You can do whatever you want," Watson said he told Sarver. "You own this team, but my culture is not for sale. And I'm not for sale."

In Watson's first year leading the bench in Phoenix, Sarver asked about the state of the organization and where Watson thought it could improve. Watson told Sarver that it suffered from a lack of diversity.

"I don't like diversity," Sarver replied, according to Watson and a basketball operations staffer with knowledge of the interaction.

Sarver said to Watson that having a diverse staff made it hard for people to agree. A lack of diversity among the organization's highest ranks was an issue that a number of employees voiced to their superiors, including to Sarver, multiple employees said. "Everybody knows that our diversity here is s---," one current business employee said.

EARLY IN HIS tenure as owner, Sarver once tried to impress upon employees how big of a Suns fan he was and how excited he was to lead the organization. After all, he had been attending games since he was 8 years old.

In one meeting, to drive home his point, Sarver passed around a picture of his wife in a Suns bikini, multiple former longtime employees told ESPN.

One former executive who was in the meeting said, "We're passing it around like a hot potato. Like, what in the hell are we supposed to do with this? That was just, you know, one early glimpse at the man."

More than a dozen employees recalled Sarver making lewd comments in all-staff meetings, including discussing times when his wife would perform oral sex on him. Four former employees said that in several all-staff meetings Sarver claimed he needed to wear Magnum or extra-large condoms. Former employees said he asked players about their sex lives and the sexual prowess of their significant others.

Before the 2008-09 season, a pregnant Suns employee who was helping coordinate the 2009 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix was told by Sarver that she wouldn't be able to continue in that role, two employees with knowledge of his remarks said. The two employees said Sarver explained that the woman would be breastfeeding and would need to be home with her newborn.

"It was so out of line and so inappropriate," one of the employees familiar with the remark said.

Some employees believed that such a move would have violated discrimination and employment laws, and the two employees said other members of Suns management quickly rebuked Sarver and told the female employee she would remain in her role.

...


In March 2011, Sarver berated that same female former employee over a tribute video to honor then-Suns executive Rick Welts, according to two employees with knowledge of the interaction. Sarver's issue was that he wasn't featured more prominently in the video and that, instead, it featured more of former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, who hired Welts. At one point, the woman broke down in tears, to which Sarver said, "Why do all you women around here cry so much?"

A female former marketing employee said Sarver would frequently use language such as, "Do I own you? Are you one of mine?"

"He makes you feel like you belong to him," the employee said.

Several employees recalled separate instances in which Sarver referred to staffers and players as "inventory."

This is a long read, but there are a ton more stories just like these ones.

 

[Lee]

Allegations of racism and misogyny, among others. We heard whisperings of a bombshell story that was going to drop about Robert Sarver and the Suns org, and well… here it is.

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

An ESPN investigation, featuring interviews with more than 70 current and former Suns employees, reveals accusations of racism and misogyny against owner Robert Sarver -- and a toxic workplace many employees believe his behavior emboldened.

www.espn.com

So, how long til he’s forced to sell?

Their have been rumblings of Sarver being a piece of shit for years, no surprise.

Unless something comes out concrete, like a email, he wont be forced to sell. But as a Phoenix local, i dont think there would be any love loss for Sarver if he was forced to sell.

 

[pr26]

POS confirmed. Trash human.

 

[Marcus]

Their have been rumblings of Sarver being a piece of shit for years, no surprise.

Unless something comes out concrete, like a email, he wont be forced to sell. But as a Phoenix local, i dont think there would be any love loss for Sarver if he was forced to sell.

I can't remember, but what was the concrete evidence against Sterling? Were there recordings or something?

 

[Rich]

I can't remember, but what was the concrete evidence against Sterling? Were there recordings or something?

Yea the mistress recorded him, I believe, over the phone.

 

[Rich]

The other thing here is, even though ESPN seemed very reluctant to point it out, James Jones appears very much in Sarver's corner. So, unless they get some concrete shit, that's gonna be a hard one to overcome.

 

[Lee]

I can't remember, but what was the concrete evidence against Sterling? Were there recordings or something?

They had recordings of him, one yelling at his Hispanic gf for being in pictures with black people. It was very bad, and what it took to get rid of him.

He had been sued many times for being a slum lord, and that wasnt enough until there was a recording.

And to be very clear, I am in no way defending Sarver, he absolutely is a piece of shit, but not a Sterling level piece of shit, but not that far either.

 

[Man Called X]

I can't remember, but what was the concrete evidence against Sterling? Were there recordings or something?

Wasn't it something stupid like his mistress was secretly recording him?

 

[bigfoot5415]

Chris Paul brings stuck in one of these situations again...jeez

 

[bigfoot5415]

Wasn't it something stupid like his mistress was secretly recording him?

She recorded him and he referred to Magic as "N" and he found it offensive that she would bring him courtside. He didnt care what she did in private, but did not like her brining a black man to sit courtside..."it embarrassed him". There was some weird shit with watching Baron Davis shower too.

Whats missed in all of this (rightfully so) was why Magic has a relationship with a women who was sleeping with Donald Sterling lol?

 

[Lee]

She recorded him and he referred to Magic as "N" and he found it offensive that she would bring him courtside. He didnt care what she did in private, but did not like her brining a black man to sit courtside..."it embarrassed him". There was some weird shit with watching Baron Davis shower too.

Whats missed in all of this (rightfully so) was why Magic has a relationship with a women who was sleeping with Donald Sterling lol?

You know you are racist when you call Magic the N word and embarrassed your minority mistress would bring him "courtside"

Magic is only one of the greatest players of all times, known as a great executive and worth a half billion dollars because of his business dealings, not his money he made as a player.

Sterling is such a caricature of a racist dude. It sucks he is Jewish, but we all have embarrassing people of our ethnic background and to me Sterling is the 2nd worst Jew in modern history. He changed his last name because he was embarrassed to be a Jew, its ok Donald, I speak for all Jews when I say we are also embarrassed you are a Jew.

 

[bigfoot5415]

You know you are racist when you call Magic the N word and embarrassed your minority mistress would bring him "courtside"

Magic is only one of the greatest players of all times, known as a great executive and worth a half billion dollars because of his business dealings, not his money he made as a player.

Sterling is such a caricature of a racist dude. It sucks he is Jewish, but we all have embarrassing people of our ethnic background and to me Sterling is the 2nd worst Jew in modern history. He changed his last name because he was embarrassed to be a Jew, its ok Donald, I speak for all Jews when I say we are also embarrassed you are a Jew.

Whose #1?

 

[Randolphkeys]

Chris Paul brings stuck in one of these situations again...jeez

I hadn't thought of that. Considering Paul's standing with players, I wonder if he is helping get this out in the open.

 

[Lee]

Whose #1?

I thought it was obvious...Bernie Madoff

The fact that most of his victims were Jewish make it even worse. I am not saying everyone will understand this, especially if you are not part of a minority, but ruining the lives of so many people and your victims being in that minority is so, much worse.

Oh wait, i forgot another, probably my new number 1, Jeffrey Epstein. Child Molestation might be the most heinous crime ever, including murder.

Well crap, didnt want to find a third, but Sterling is not as horrible as Madoff or Epstein. Isnt that a fucking ridiculous standard and list?