NBA Commissioner Adam Silver seems to have landed himself in hot water in a very tough week for the league. It was revealed yesterday that the NBA had completed its investigation into allegations against Robert Sarver for creating an inappropriate working environment within the Suns’ organization, passing comments to women, making racial slurs, and other objectionable behavior since 2004.
Sarver’s punishment for his actions was a $10 million fine and a 1-year suspension from the league hasn’t been received as severe enough, with many openly saying that Sarver should no longer be a part of the NBA. Silver addressed those comments with an odd statement to a fantastic question from Howard Beck about why do owners in the NBA have different standards of conduct compared to other NBA employees.
“It’s a fair question, Howard. You alluded to it. There are particular rights here to someone who owns an NBA team as opposed to someone who is an employee. The equivalent of a $10 million fine and a 1-year suspension, I don’t know how to measure that against a job. I have certain authority by virtue of this organization and that is what I exercised. I don’t have the right to take away his team… To me, the consequences are severe for Mr. Sarver.
. @HowardBeck: "Why should there be a different standard for NBA owner than it would be for everybody who works in this league?"
Adam Silver: "There are particular rights here to someone who owns an NBA team as opposed to someone who is an employee."https://t.co/iS4n5gII9v
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 14, 2022
Adam Silver’s comments created enough of a stir for him to issue a clarification of his statement later on.
Regarding the reaction to commissioner Adam Silver's comments today about team owners having different rights than employees, NBA spokesman Mike Bass offered this clarification: pic.twitter.com/xT8LyAejev
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 15, 2022
Did Adam Silver Show The Double Standards That Exist?
Nobody is questioning the fact that Sarver is getting treatment from the NBA that the person they hired to be an office employee is not. If there was even an executive in the NBA that committed even 1 of the reported things that Sarver did, they would be fired relatively quickly.
Silver openly admitting to a double standard is very surprising to see. Should the employees in the Suns organization not be protected from Sarver after everything he has done to them according to the league-sanctioned report?
Other owners probably wouldn’t have voted to remove Sarver, but it is on the league to take that initiative. Everyone, including Suns point guard Chris Paul, believes that justice hasn’t been served to the ones affected in this situation. Silver’s comments basically double-down on that being the case because Sarver is an owner and will have his situation evaluated differently.
