The NBA has suspended Robert Sarver, the former Western Alliance Bancorp. executive chairman and CEO, for a year and is fining him $10 million for his workplace conduct at the two professional basketball teams he owns.
Sarver, the owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, said the n-word at least five times "when recounting the statements of others," demeaned female employees, commented on their physical appearance and made frequent sex-related jokes, according to the results of an investigation released Tuesday.
He also "engaged in demeaning and harsh treatment of employees," with yelling and cursing that at some points crossed into workplace bullying, the investigation found.
In addition, Sarver arranged a lunch for female Western Alliance employees and female employees of the Suns, allegedly for the purpose of enabling the female bank employees to explain to the female Suns employees how to handle Sarver's demands.
Sarver
The law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz conducted the investigation for the NBA, interviewing 320 individuals, including Sarver, along with reviewing more than 80,000 emails, texts, videos and other documents. The NBA said that Sarver and the Suns and Mercury teams "cooperated fully with the investigative process."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a
"We believe the outcome is the right one, taking into account all the facts, circumstances and context brought to light by the comprehensive investigation of this 18-year period and our commitment to upholding proper standards in NBA workplaces," Silver said.
Western Alliance declined to comment. The bank has not said what prompted Sarver's exit in June from its board of directors.
In January, the Phoenix bank said it had hired the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson to conduct an investigation into the allegations the NBA was reviewing and to evaluate Sarver's "continued leadership role at the company." Last week, a bank spokesperson said the investigation concluded when Sarver retired from its board.
Sarver is barred from entering any NBA or WNBA facilities for a year and representing either the Suns or Mercury or having any involvement in their business, and he must complete training "focused on respect and appropriate conduct in the workplace" during his suspension. The $10 million fine, the maximum penalty that the league's bylaws allow, will go to groups that work on eliminating racial and gender disparities.
The investigation found at least five instances of Sarver saying the n-word "in repeating or purporting to repeat what a Black person said," and four of those utterances came after warnings from Black and white employees that he should not use the word. The incidents occurred between 2004 and 2017.
It also found several examples of Sarver making demeaning comments to female employees, including telling a pregnant employee that she could not take on a task in the future because she would be "breastfeeding" and that her "baby needs their mom, not their father."
In 2011, according to the report, Sarver yelled at a female Suns employee over a video she made about an executive who was leaving. The employee was "shaken" by the incident, and a week later, Sarver went to her office and said loudly, "Why do all the women around here cry so much?"
The Phoenix bank is forming an executive leadership team that it said will ensure continuity within its senior ranks. The moves come five months after CEO Kenneth Vecchione received a contract extension through at least 2024.
After that incident, Sarver scheduled a lunch for several female employees of both the Suns and Western Alliance, according to the report. Two attendees said the lunch, which men were not invited to, was "uncomfortable and demeaning," the report stated. The two attendees thought the lunch was held in response to the 2011 incident and was meant to "enable the female bank employees to explain to the female Suns employees how to handle Sarver's demands," the report said.
Sarver told investigators he had arranged the lunch "to facilitate networking" between the Suns and Western Alliance, as he has done to introduce executives at other organizations he has run.
"Because the lunch was specifically targeted at female employees, including the female employee Sarver had confronted about the video incident, and because of its proximity in time to Sarver's complaint that female Suns employees 'cry so much,' the investigation finds that the lunch was reasonably perceived to have been arranged for the purpose described above," the report said.
The report included a letter from Sarver's lawyer, Thomas Clare of the firm Clare Locke, saying that ESPN's reporting is "demonstrably false." Clare wrote that Sarver's "commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of his DNA," pointing to his work in advancing women's professional basketball and stating that more people of color work in basketball operations at the Suns than at any other NBA team.
