The owner of “Phoenix” will pay for racism

One of the biggest scandals in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in recent times – around the owner of the Phoenix Suns, one of the strongest clubs in the league, Robert Sarver – ended with his disqualification. As a result of an investigation initiated in 2021, the NBA suspended Sarver from participating in the work of the team for one year and ordered him to pay the maximum possible fine of $10 million under the regulations. statements, intimidated them and even used brute force.

The NBA on its official website announced that, as a result of the investigation, it suspended for one year Robert Sarver, the owner of two basketball clubs – the men’s Phoenix Suns, which excelled last season in the regular season, but misfired in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, and the women’s Phoenix Mercury. He will also be ordered to pay a $10 million fine and take a course in the proper treatment of personnel for his behavior, “clearly not up to generally accepted standards.”

Sarver is charged with an extensive list of misdemeanors: racist remarks against black players and coaches, sexist jokes towards female employees, inappropriate sexual behavior, intimidation of staff and even the use of physical cruelty. The owner of “Phoenix” admitted his guilt.

Thus ended one of the biggest scandals in the NBA in recent years, which has been developing since last fall. In November 2021, ESPN published a resonant article, and Robert Sarver, who has owned two basketball teams since 2004, became its main character. Referring to numerous anonymous sources, its authors cited dozens of episodes that occurred in different years, but all illustrated Sarver’s “indecent behavior”.

В статье подробно рассказывалось о том, как собственник «Финикса» многократно называл темнокожих экс-тренеров клуба Эрла Уотсона и Линдси Хантера, а также игроков словом nigger (оно считается оскорбительным) и постоянно делал акцент на их расовой принадлежности. Robert Sarver was caught in inappropriate antics with sexual overtones. Once, according to ESPN, the owner of Suns distributed photos of his wife in a club-branded bikini to employees, and at general meetings he shared the details of his sexual life: for example, he emphasized that he only uses large condoms. It was noted that Sarver liked to ask his colleagues about their sexual experience, and at the same time about the experience of their wives or girlfriends.

Robert Sarver, according to former club employees, made sexual remarks about women, and also “devalued” their work. It was the behavior of the owner of Phoenix, the article says, that led to the strengthening of a “toxic corporate culture” within the company. As evidence, ESPN cited the following case: one of the employees contacted the human resources department after she was harassed by a male colleague outside the office. Meanwhile, she was advised to move to another table or move hers to the other end of the office.

The previous incident of this kind, in the center of which was the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, ended even more sadly for his defendant. In 2014, a woman named Vee Stiviano, who was in a close relationship with Sterling, made public an audio recording of her conversation with the entrepreneur. In it, he expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Stiviano communicates too closely with African Americans, and asked not to invite them to the club’s matches.

This scandal caused a wide public outcry: Donald Sterling was condemned, among other things, by former US President Barack Obama. The NBA suspended Sterling for life and also effectively forced him to sell the club to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Ekaterina Remizova