Following an inquiry that revealed racist and sexist workplace behavior, the NBA on Tuesday suspended Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, for a year and fined him a record $10 million, according to officials. Sarver will not be permitted to enter any NBA or WNBA structures for the next year, “including any office, arena, or practice facility,” the league announced in a statement.
According to the NBA, he will also not be permitted to take part in any WNBA or NBA events, represent the teams in any way, be involved in any basketball or team-related operations, or have any kind of leadership position within the league. The NBA noted that the $10 million punishment is the highest amount permitted per league regulations and that it is the largest sum of money ever imposed on a single individual in the history of professional basketball. A Nov. 4 ESPN article detailing long-standing accusations of racism and misogyny within the Phoenix basketball organization served as the impetus for the league investigation.
The NBA hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a law firm with offices in New York, to oversee the investigation. 320 people, including both current and past team members, were questioned by the investigators. The NBA claims that Sarver, team management, and staff “cooperated fully with the investigative process.”
Bullying, sexist insults, and racial slurs Sarver, the franchise’s managing partner of eighteen years, was found to have uttered “the N-word when recounting the statements of others” “on at least five occasions,” according to the investigation. Additionally, the NBA discovered that he had “engaged in instances of inequitable conduct toward female employees, made many sex-related comments in the workplace, and made inappropriate comments about the physical appearance of other women and female employees.”