Phoenix owner seeks to find buyer after report
Various outlets are reporting that Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury Governor, Robert Sarver, will start the process to find a new buyer.
Last week, Sarver was fined $10M and suspended a year after an independent report revealed that the Governor had fostered a toxic work environment.
Several players spoke out against the NBA with LeBron James expressing disappointed and Draymond Green calling for the Governors to go through the voting process.
They weren’t the only significant voices. PayPal made it clear that they weren’t going to renew their business agreement with the Suns, if Sarver was still involved with the team after the suspension. Suns vice chairman, Jahm Najafi, had publicly called for Sarver to move aside.
Sarver didn’t do any favors today when he announced his intentions.
Words that I deeply regret now overshadow nearly two decades of building organizations that brought people together — and strengthened the Phoenix area — through the unifying power of professional men’s and women’s basketball.
Words that I deeply regret now overshadow nearly two decades of building organizations that brought people together — and strengthened the Phoenix area — through the unifying power of professional men’s and women’s basketball.
As a man of faith, I believe in atonement and the path to forgiveness. I expected that the commissioner’s one-year suspension would provide the time for me to focus, make amends and remove my personal controversy from the teams that I and so many fans love.
But in our current unforgiving climate, it has become painfully clear that that is no longer possible — that whatever good I have done, or could still do, is outweighed by things I have said in the past. For those reasons, I am beginning the process of seeking buyers for the Suns and Mercury.
I do not want to be a distraction to these two teams and the fine people who work so hard to bring the joy and excitement of basketball to fans around the world. I want what’s best for these two organizations, the players, the employees, the fans, the community, my fellow owners, the NBA and the WNBA. This is the best course of action for everyone.
In the meantime, I will continue to work on becoming a better person, and continuing to support the community in meaningful ways. Thank you for continuing to root for the Suns and the Mercury, embracing the power that sports has to bring us together.
Source: NBA.com
Sarver’s statement is begging for a free pass for behavior that he knew was wrong when he was doing it. This is the classic “I’m not sorry for what I did… I’m sorry I got caught.”
There has to be a time where owners of any type of business, can’t hide behind NDA’s and Separation Agreements. For years, using those two mechanisms have been akin to “Get out of jail” free cards.
More than any other league, the NBA has preached inclusion. That can’t be for everyone except the Governors who have operated under the “don’t take away a team because next time it could be me.”
That’s an interesting position to take. So the fellow Governors don’t want to remove a business partner that is directly involved in fostering a toxic workplace because you’re afraid that you’ll want to or already have fostered a toxic workplace? The answer seems simple… how about not creating a toxic workplace. Why is that so hard? Why do you need to make sure you don’t have accountability just in case?
That’s like arguing their should be no punishment for stealing because one day, you might have to steal. It’s a mind-numbing position to take yet it’s taken by so many.
Green was right to demand the Governors vote. If they wanted to stand behind Sarver, lets see how many owners are backing his behavior? And, no secret vote. All votes should be made public so the consumers of those products could know what type of person they were sending their money to.
It looks like that won’t happen because Sarver jumped on the sword similar to Jerry Richardson when he sold the Carolina Panthers but don’t get it twisted. Sarver could’ve pulled a Daniel Snyder and dared his business partners to do anything by threatening to tie it up in court and exposing secrets. The NFL caved to Snyder by doing a phony report that was never released plus Snyder avoided being suspended by the league in any formal way.
Hopefully the NBA Governors will get together to speak about their behavior and how to avoid there being a third case of a business partner selling after being exposed as an awful human being.
