It seems unlikely that the NBA would have ever held Sarver’s feet to the fire had it not disclosed allegations of racism, misogyny and other workplace misconduct to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, allegations that were published in November 2021. The league admitted that it received no information about Sarver’s conduct on the anonymous hotline he created in the wake of Sports Illustrated’s 2018 investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in the Dallas Mavericks organization. If the NBA is serious about its commitment to social justice, the league should ask itself: Are we doing enough to convince our employees that we are committed to making theirs a safe and fair workplace? The independent investigation into Sarver’s misconduct, which began only after ESPN disclosed, detailed numerous instances of harassment during his 18-year tenure, from confirmation that he used the N-word in a free-agent recruiting pitch during his freshman season as a team owner in 2004 to confirmation of his use of sexual language in a 2021 meeting. It’s hard to believe the league was unaware of Sarver’s transgressions. Even with a 43-page report filled with evidence to the contrary, the NBA upheld its independent law firm’s determination that “Sharver’s conduct was not found to be motivated by racial or ethnic animosity.” Commissioner Adam Silver wasn’t covered in glory when he vowed: “There are certain rights here for someone who owns an NBA team as opposed to someone who is an employee.” His clarification that employees and franchise owners are “absolutely … held to the same standard of appropriate conduct” fell flat, given the paltry one-year suspension and $10 million fine levied against Sarver instead of a lifetime ban. The story continues It put the onus back on the whistleblowers, some of whom still work for the Suns, to forgive and forget. Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver has announced plans to sell both franchises amid his scandalous behavior. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports) In the end, money talked. Paypal has promised not to renew its longtime partnership with the Suns and Mercury if Sarver is reinstated at the end of the suspension. Only one member of Sarver’s ownership group spoke out against the managing partner’s management. More league and team sponsors were ready to stop working with Phoenix franchises, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. The National Basketball Players Association had just begun its protest, calling for Sarver’s resignation. And Sarver finally folded. Perhaps that was the NBA’s hope all along, that the financial fallout from Sarver’s scandal would provide enough pressure to force his removal and the league’s other 29 ownership groups could avoid the possibility of further fallout from the discovery process behind a potentially contentious legal battle. . However, it’s not because the NBA did everything it could to protect the rights of its employees that we got here. It took TMZ releasing tapes of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist remarks, and protests from players and sponsors, before the NBA issued his lifetime ban. Sterling’s behavior was no secret, given that he had paid a pair of historically large housing discrimination lawsuits over the previous decade. Even then, it was Shelly Sterling, not the league, who facilitated her husband’s ouster, deeming him mentally incompetent and pledging not to sue the NBA as part of her sale. Likewise, it was the Sports Illustrated report that revealed widespread sexual harassment, abuse and other misconduct within the Mavericks organization. The resulting independent investigation by the NBA revealed that club owner Mark Cuban had prior knowledge of repeated sexual harassment of — and violent threats against — colleagues by an employee, as well as two acts of domestic violence committed by another employee. , including a colleague. Cuban denied prior knowledge of team president Terdema Ussery’s “inappropriate workplace conduct toward 15 female employees,” despite the Dallas Morning News revealing an internal investigation into Ussery’s wrongdoing before the team was purchased by Cuban. “Sorry. It doesn’t work that way,” Melissa Weisenhaupt, the Mavericks’ marketing manager from 2010-14 and one of Ussery’s accusers, wrote for SI. “When I worked on the business side of the Mavs, all marketing, promotion and broadcast decisions went through you. Nothing was decided without your approval.” Under Cuban’s leadership, “several employees said that the company’s apparent inaction … fueled their belief that it was futile to file human resources complaints.” In Sarver’s case, the culture was almost identical: “Employees were reluctant to raise concerns and were also reluctant to complete HR surveys.” As for Sterling, his racism was widely publicized long before 2014. In addition to the housing discrimination lawsuits, one of the game’s all-time greats, Elgin Baylor, who spent 22 years of his career as a general manager of the Clippers, made multiple allegations of racial discrimination in a lawsuit against Sterling. In each case, the NBA either did not conduct an investigation or claimed it had no prior knowledge of the widespread misconduct among its players. The league should be able to explain why it didn’t act or didn’t know. We won’t like the answers, as we did when Silver addressed them in his press conference. Workers rightly believe that their voices will not be heard because the power dynamics are heavily tilted in the direction of NBA franchise owners, and the league office is beholden to them, even when misconduct comes to light. It took the courage of Sarver’s employees to come forward with their accounts as victims of harassment, Holmes’ tireless reporting to uncover the sordid details, a 10-month independent investigation into it all, and still the NBA didn’t hold the team owner accountable. . It then took more media coverage, condemnation from players, a minority owner and the withdrawal of sponsorships to force Saver’s hand. However, Sarver will walk with the fortune he made on the backs of those he defamed. As Shelly Sterling told Shelburne of her husband in 2019, “He’s happy to sell the team now. Yeah. He tells a lot of people. He says, ‘You know, I should have sold the team, but I feel like I fell off a tree and landed in a pile of gold.” Surely there is more bad behavior yet to be exposed in the NBA, or a league that seems to pride itself on progressivism would have found a three-quarters vote among club owners to kick out the worst of them. We can only hope that their underlings are brave enough to tell their stories, because if we’ve learned anything from this mess, it’s that there are outside forces willing to hold the powerful accountable, if it’s not the NBA. – – – – – – – Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Do you have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
