NBA moved the goalpost for Sarver despite decades of repugnant behavior

The NBA is going back on its own precedent set by the Donald Sterling ban.

This isn’t the first time the owner (now more commonly referred to as a ‘Governor’) of an NBA franchise found themselves in deep water over racial remarks. In April 2014, an audio recording surfaced of then Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks in a private phone call with his ex-wife. Once the recording was substantiated, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver imposed a lifetime ban and effectively forced Sterling to sell the Clippers.

Although it wasn’t an easy process, the league stood with its Black fans, players coaches and staff to oust someone who was in direct opposition to the ideals the NBA represents. By this same stance, shouldn’t the NBA be imposing similar sanctions against Sarver?

One might argue that the statements made by Sarver aren’t as overtly racist as those made by Sterling, but this isn’t a one-off scenario. On numerous, documented occasions, Sarver was informed that his use of the N-word was unacceptable, yet he went on to repeat it several times over. Surely, repeated acts of racial insensitivity should suffice in exemplifying his blatant disregard for racial sensitivity and resistance to growth.

Even if the NBA wanted to stretch the idea that Sarver wasn’t evidently racist, he certainly discriminated against women. There were several documented occasions in which Sarver blatantly made discriminatory comments and berated female employees. Below are examples quoted directly from the section “Treatment of Women” published by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz:

Quote from subhead “2008: Inequitable Treatment of a Pregnant Employee”

"Witnesses recalled Sarver saying, in substance, that the employee could not perform the assignment because she would be “breastfeeding” and her “baby needs their mom, not their father"

Quote from subhead “2011: Video Incident”

"In March 2011, Sarver “screamed at” a female employee to voice his displeasure about a video she had prepared for a departing team executive. One witness overheard Sarver loudly rebuking the female employee about the video. Another witness spoke to the female employee, who was in tears, shortly after Sarver reprimanded her. Approximately one week later, Sarver visited the female employee’s office to discuss the video incident. Sarver entered the employee’s office, shut the door, and said in substance, “Why can’t we get along? What’s wrong with you?” When the female employee began to cry, Sarver then said in a raised voice, “Why do all the women around here cry so much?” Several witnesses heard Sarver yell at the employee."

More complaints of discriminatory behavior toward women were brought up in the report before moving onto an entire section entitled “Sexual, Crude, and Vulgar Comments and Conduct in the Workplace.”