Robert Sarver, the owner of the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. teams in Phoenix, said he planned to sell both teams after an investigation found that he had mistreated employees for years. Sarver owns the N.B.A.’s Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Mercury.
The N.B.A. fined him $10 million and suspended him for one year, but several prominent players, one of the teams’ minority owners and a major sponsor have called for a harsher punishment. Tamika Tremaglio, the executive director of the N.B.A. players’ union, said Sarver should be barred for life.
In a statement Wednesday, Sarver said his one-year suspension would have given him time to “make amends and remove my personal controversy” from the teams that he owns.
“But in our current unforgiving climate,” he said, “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.”
The N.B.A. announced its penalties last week after releasing a 43-page public report by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which conducted a nearly yearlong investigation into Sarver’s conduct in his 18 years with the basketball teams. According to the report, Sarver used racist language on multiple occasions, treated women unfairly and bullied and demeaned employees.
Pressure appeared to be mounting on Sarver — and on the N.B.A. — in recent days. The Suns’ Chris Paul was among the high-profile players who called for stiffer penalties, saying he was “horrified and disappointed” by what he had read in the report. He described Sarver’s behavior as “atrocious.”
Last Thursday, Jahm Najafi, a Suns vice chairman and minority owner, called for Sarver to resign, saying in an open letter to employees and fans that he could not “sit back and allow our children and future generations of fans to think that this behavior is tolerated because of wealth and privilege.” On Wednesday, Najafi declined to comment on Sarver’s plan to sell the teams.
On Friday, PayPal, which has a logo patch on the Suns’ jerseys, said it would not renew its sponsorship after the 2022-23 season if Sarver was still involved with the team after his suspension.
The N.B.A. began its investigation in response to a November 2021 article by ESPN about accusations of mistreatment against Sarver. The law firm retained by the N.B.A. said its investigators interviewed more than 100 individuals who witnessed behavior that “violated applicable standards.”
Sarver, according to the report, made crude jokes, used “the N-word” on at least five occasions, shared inappropriate text messages and photos, and belittled employees. During the investigation, Sarver sought to defend himself by citing his contributions to social and racial justice causes.
What to Know: Robert Sarver Misconduct Case
A suspension and a fine. The N.B.A. suspended Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, for one year and fined him $10 million after an investigation determined that he had engaged in misconduct towards his employees. Here is what to know:
N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver could have suspended Sarver for longer than one year, but $10 million was the most he could fine him. Last week, at a news conference after a meeting of the league’s board of governors in Manhattan, Silver defended the length of the suspension, saying he felt it was fair.
“It’s beyond the pale in every possible way to use language and behave that way,” Silver said of Sarver’s behavior. But he added: “Remember, while there were these terrible things, there were also many, many people who had very positive things to say about him through this process.”
LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, said last week in a post on Twitter that the league “definitely got this wrong,” referring to the fine and suspension as punishment for Sarver.
“I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But this isn’t right,” James said. “There is no place for misogyny, sexism, and racism in any work place. Don’t matter if you own the team or play for the team. We hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it.”
On Wednesday, after Sarver announced his plans to sell, James said on Twitter that he was “proud to be a part of a league committed to progress!”
The harshest penalty the league has ever levied on a team owner came in 2014 when Donald Sterling, then the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was barred for life after he made racist remarks about Black people in a private conversation and a recording of his comments was made public.
Steve Ballmer, the former chief executive of Microsoft, agreed to buy the Clippers for about $2 billion just one month later. The quick sale was facilitated when medical experts declared that Sterling was “mentally incapacitated,” which allowed his wife, Rochelle, to have sole trusteeship of the team and negotiate a deal.
Yet selling professional sports teams is often a drawn-out process that can take months or even years.
Owners typically hire one of a handful of bankers who specialize in buying and selling teams to handle the transaction for them. That banker solicits bids from billionaires, corporations or, increasingly, large coalitions of individuals. Sometimes there is a more traditional auction process. Once an agreement is reached, the potential new owner or owners have to be vetted and approved by a vote of the N.B.A.’s board of governors, which includes owners from all 30 teams.
There are a number of factors that can complicate a sale, some of which are present with the Phoenix Suns.
While Sarver controls the Suns and the Mercury, he owns just 35 percent of Suns Legacy Partners L.L.C., the legal entity that owns the teams. Potential buyers may want to purchase 100 percent of the teams, which would involve negotiating with other members of the ownership group — though some of them may want to buy the team and may have a leg up after already having been vetted and approved by the N.B.A.
Arenas and associated commercial development can also complicate sales. While the Suns ownership group manages the Footprint Center, where the Suns and the Mercury play their home games, the arena is owned by the City of Phoenix.
Teams usually sell to those willing to pay the most money, but not always. Sometimes owners value non-monetary terms, like an agreement to keep a team in a specific city, and the method and terms of payment for teams can also matter.
When owners have been more or less forced to sell teams, the outcomes have varied widely.
In 2017, Jerry Richardson announced he would sell the Carolina Panthers shortly after Sports Illustrated reported allegations of workplace misconduct. Five months later, after a fairly typical sales process, David Tepper agreed to buy the Panthers for at least $2.2 billion, which was the highest price for an N.F.L. team at the time.
The sale of Real Salt Lake, a Major League Soccer team, took much longer. In August 2020, M.L.S. announced that Dell Loy Hansen would sell the team, after Hansen was reported to have made racist comments. It took 17 months for Hansen and M.L.S. to find a buyer, and the league had to operate the team for a season.
Sopan Deb contributed reporting.
