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Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver’s racist, sexist and inappropriate actions landed him a one-year suspension and $10 million fine from the NBA. But he has been able to keep his job and his stake in the organizations.
The same wasn’t true for Donald Sterling in 2014 when his own racist behavior came to light — the now-former Clippers owner was banned from the league for life by commissioner Adam Silver, hit with a $2.5 million fine and was essentially forced to sell the team.
Why didn’t Sarver suffer a similar fate?
“The situations were dramatically different,” Silver said in a news conference on Wednesday. “I think what we saw in the case of Donald Sterling was blatant racist conduct directed at a select group of people. While it’s difficult to know what is in someone’s heart or in their mind, we heard those words. Then there was a follow-up from the league office, and that became public, as well, in terms of what Mr. Sterling even subsequently said about his actions.”
He also cited information that was available to him through the Sarver investigation that was not made public.
“In the case of Robert Sarver, I’d say, first of all, we’re looking at the totality of circumstances over an 18-year period in which he’s owned these teams, and ultimately we made a judgment, I made a judgment, that in the circumstances in which he had used that language and that behavior, that while, as I said, it was indefensible is not strong enough.
