The NBA drew the ire of many fans, employees, players, and media members yesterday when the league announced the punishment for Robert Sarver after a lengthy investigation into his inappropriate workplace behavior. The revelations in the NBA’s report about Sarver have been shocking and something many believe is justifiable enough for the NBA to banish him from the league and force him to sell the Phoenix Suns, similar to what happened with Donald Sterling and the Clippers in 2014.
When Sterling was banished from the league, everyone praised Commissioner Adam Silver for taking that bold step. While it was welcomed with open arms, Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks warned the league of a ‘slippery slope‘ when it came to making owners sell their teams and banning them from the league.
NBA insider Kurt Helin openly shared a possible reason as to why Sarver wasn’t banned and it is a relatively simple one. 2/3rds of the owners in the league are not going to back the removal of Sarver on the off-chance that the league office comes to poke around the skeletons in their closets.
There are a lot of owners in glass houses who don't want to start throwing stones. https://t.co/1IQKJ43SEi
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) September 14, 2022
Are The NBA Owners Justified In Taking This Stance?
When the news against Donald Sterling came out, it was transparently clear what he had done, as there were recordings of his bigoted thoughts. With Sarver, all the league and other owners have are testimonials from other people, which cannot be considered as binding as the videos that took Sterling down.
No team owner became a billionaire without having done things that could be considered questionable in their tenure as an owner or prior to that. In today’s hyper-sensitive climate, they can’t afford to have things come out and endanger their ownership of whatever team they own.
If people want Sarver out of the league, the players need to unite and boycott the Phoenix Suns. The team is trying to contend for a title right now, so the players will most likely focus on basketball and not try to get Sarver out of the league. It’s a tough situation but one that is going to make the NBA re-examine how they deal with situations like this in the future.
