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Over 70 current and former Suns staffers made claims that team owner Robert Sarver was at the center of a “toxic” culture in Phoenix, frequently using the N-word and belittling staffers, according to an explosive report from ESPN.
The story featured numerous anecdotes that included Sarver using the N-word and other racist language, including an accusation by former Suns coach Earl Watson. After a Phoenix loss to the Warriors, Sarver allegedly entered the coaches locker room and asked, “You know, why does Draymond Green get to run up the court and say [N-word]?”
Upon being told he couldn’t say that by Watson, Sarver reportedly responded: “Why? Draymond Green says [N-word.]”
Sarver denied Watson’s version of the incident and said in a statement that he didn’t use the N-word except for one time many year ago, after which he immediately apologized.
“I’ve never called anyone or any group of people the N-word, or referred to anyone or any group of people by the N-word, either verbally or in writing,” Sarver told ESPN in a statement through his legal team. “I don’t use that word. It is abhorrent and ugly and denigrating and against everything I believe in.”
After ESPN’s report was released, Green appeared to address the accusations against Sarver on Twitter.
“But I was fined?? Lol smh,” the Warriors star wrote.
According to ESPN, at least a half-dozen former staffers recalled instances in which Sarver re-told stories from Black players and used the N-word. He also used the epithet when explaining why he preferred hiring Lindsey Hunter over Dan Majerle as head coach in 2013.
“Theses [N-words] need a [N-word],” Sarver said, according to the report.
Sarver’s racial insensitivity extended past the use of slurs. Watson and an anonymous staffer told ESPN that the owner once said, “I don’t like diversity,” because it made it hard for people to agree. The Suns reportedly have a major diversity issue within their organization, which a number of employees have brought up to their managers, including to Sarver.
One female employee also told ESPN that Sarver would say things like, “Do I own you? Are you one of mine?” A number of employees said he would refer to staff and players as “inventory.”
“Women have very little value,” a former female staffer told ESPN of the workplace culture. “Women are possessions. And I think we’re nowhere close to where he thinks men are.”
At one point, when a female employee broke down in tears after being berated by Sarver over a tribute video to honor former Suns executive Rick Welts, Sarver reportedly said, “Why do all you women around here cry so much?”
He also reportedly made demeaning sexual comments. During the 2012-13 season, he allegedly offered to fly women to Los Angeles, the implication being for sex, so that players wouldn’t go out in the city the night before a game. Though the comment was taken as a joke, a female staffer in the room was humiliated.
When the Suns were recruiting LaMarcus Aldridge in 2015, Sarver also reportedly joked that the Suns needed to have local strippers impregnated by players so they would have children in the area, giving Phoenix a leg up in free agency.
Sarver denied making both comments to ESPN.
Sarver also reportedly interfered with the coaching staff despite a lack of basketball knowledge. That included; demanding that Watson fire Klutch Sports as his agency because Rich Paul made a dig at him while negotiating a contract; trying to draw up plays despite not knowing the sport well enough to do so; and berating the staff, with what former assistant Corliss Williamson called racial connotations.
The 60-year-old Sarver released a statement Thursday after ESPN’s report was published in which he denied using the N-word, tried to discredit Baxter Holmes, who wrote the story, and called Watson “clearly not a credible source.”
“At this point, I would entirely welcome an impartial NBA investigation which may prove our only outlet for clearing my name and the reputation of an organization of which I’m so very proud,” Sarver said.
A number of Suns staffers, including GM James Jones, publicly denied allegations that Sarver made racist or misogynistic comments when news leaked a couple weeks ago that a story was coming out. Suns vice chairman Jahm Najafi released a statement Thursday in response to the story, pledging full accountability.
“I have been made aware of the allegations against Robert Sarver, the managing partner of the Phoenix Suns,” Najafi said. “The conduct he is alleged to have committed has stunned and saddened me and is unacceptable. The well-being and safety of every Suns employee, player, coach and stakeholder is first and foremost our priority. My sincerest sympathy goes out to all whose lives and professions have been impacted. I am personally committed to helping eradicate any form of racism, sexism and bias, which is unacceptable anywhere in our society.”
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