“There is difference in an employee and team owner” Adam Silver reveals harsh truth on why Robert Sarver wasn’t banished earlier
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LeBron James and Chris Paul have blasted the NBA commissioner Adam Silver for the punishment meted out to Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver, who was fined $10 million and suspended for a year last week after an independent inquiry determined he engaged in aggressive, racially insensitive, and improper behavior. The research, commissioned by the NBA last autumn in response to an ESPN expose concerning Sarver’s behavior, discovered that the Sun’s owner had “repeated the N-word when repeating the words of others on at least five times throughout his career with the Suns/Mercury organization.”
However, NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended his stance on the situation during an interview Wednesday that the one-year ban he handed down to Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver for racist and sexist statements might have been extended, but he didn’t “have the power to take away his team
Adam Silver’s stance on the punishment given to Robert Sarver
“I was in disbelief to a certain extent about what I learned,” Adam Silver said. “I was saddened by it, disheartened… The conduct is indefensible but I feel we dealt with it in a fair manner.” After private recordings of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist statements became public in 2014, Silver compelled Sterling to sell the team. Silver conceded that the scenarios were “dramatically different” and that there was “no talk” about removing Sarver as owner, but said, “There’s no simple answer here.”
“I don’t have the right to take away his team,” Silver said. “I don’t want to rest on that legal point because of course there could be a process to take away someone’s team in this league. It’s very involved, and I ultimately made the decision that it didn’t rise to that level.”
According to Silver, many of those who came forward with proof were promised discretion. “I have access to information that the general public does not have. Silver said. “I can look at the whole of the circumstances around those occurrences in a manner that we can’t fully bring to life. I believe that puts me in a different position in the end as the one who has to make the final decision about what is a fair conclusion here.”
The Sterling and Sarver cases were viewed differently by Silver. “I believe what we witnessed in the instance of Donald Sterling was clear racist behaviour directed towards a certain group of individuals. “Silver stated. “It’s over the pale in every imaginable sense to use words and behave that way,” Silver said of Sarver, “but… it was entirely of a different sort than what we observed in that prior case.”” Silver also mentioned the conclusions of the Sarver investigation. “If they had found that, in fact, his behaviour was driven by racial animus, it would have had an influence on the eventual conclusion here, without a doubt.” Silver stated. “But that’s not what they discovered.”
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