On November 4, ESPN writer Baxter Holmes published an article exposing a toxic culture of racism and misogyny within the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Phoenix Suns organization. The article features interviews with over 70 current and former Phoenix Suns employees who testify to the racism and misogyny rife in the organization, and points to the franchise’s owner, Robert Sarver, as the main perpetrator. Sarver, who made his fortune in baking and real estate, purchased the Phoenix Suns – and its sibling organization, the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) – in 2004. Both organizations were purchased for 401 million USD, a then-record price for a franchise, but testimony from employees reveal how Sarver’s 17-year tenure as owner has institutionalized a sinister history of blatant and subtle racism, misogyny, and harassment.
Earl Watson, a former Suns and current Toronto Raptors coach, is one of the individuals named in Baxter’s article. According to Watson as well as several other sources, Sarver frequently used the N-word to refer to players, justifying his use with the fact that he had heard Black players and staff use it previously. When staff, such as Watson, called Sarver out and explained that his use of the N-word was unacceptable, Sarver brushed them off and continued nonetheless.
Incidents like these were common throughout Sarver’s 17-year tenure as owner. Watson and other coaching staff also testified to Sarver’s constant beration of Black coaching staff: Sarver was known to aggressively confront coaches in intermissions and after games, clearly stepping outside the regular jurisdiction of franchise owners. Assistant coach Corliss Williamson said that an older, white male owner aggressively confronting him, a Black man, in the coaches room carried explicit racial connotations.
Sarver’s behaviour set the tone for the rest of the organization – non-executive employees also testified to how Sarver created a workplace where racist abuse was encouraged and protected. In another incident, a white executive repeatedly called a Black employee “Carlton” (referring to the character in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), despite being told to stop several times by said employee. Even though racism was rampant within the organization, employees were left with little recourse in the face of such harassment. A former Human Resources (HR) employee detailed how workers were specifically told not to file complaints, and often feared retaliation from the organization if they did. On multiple occasions, including a complaint of racial discrimination raised by a Black employee regarding promotions for white colleagues, employees who raised problems with HR were soon told that they “no longer fit the [Suns] organization.” The standard consequence for reporting discrimination within the Suns was retaliation in the form of being fired, creating a place where employees’ safety, particularly the safety of Black employees, came secondary to maintaining the public image of white executives. When legal action was instigated against the organization, the Suns would settle – a former employee recounted how executives were mainly concerned with the potential of “bad press,” rather than the issue of racism itself.
Baxter’s report also provides numerous examples of an unchecked culture of misogyny within the Suns organization, enabled and enforced by Sarver. Women within the organization often either witnessed or were themselves subjected to verbal “barrages” from male executives, including an incident where Sarver berated a woman so heavily she broke down in tears. In response to this incident, Sarver only asked: “Why do all you women around here cry so much?” Many women spoke about being entirely resigned to being sexually harassed within the Suns organization, chalking it up to a feature of the work environment. This caused long-term psychological damage to the women on staff, resulting in increased anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide.
Perhaps one of the most alarming elements of Sarver’s behaviour is how he figures himself as the team’s owner. According to one female employee, Sarver would frequently use language such as “Do I own you? Are you one of mine?” when speaking to employees. This was a well-documented occurrence among staff, with several testifying to Sarver’s repeated use of the word “inventory” to describe staffers and players. Another former staffer said “[Sarver] likes people to know that he’s in charge. He wants control. He wants control of every situation and every person.” Sarver’s racism and misogyny go hand in hand, allowing him and his organization to assert control over those in the franchise and dehumanize staff and players while simultaneously profiting off of their labour. This should be situated within a larger understanding of the relationships between players and franchise owners in the NBA – as journalist Jesse Washington pointed out, this is a league where a group of nearly all-white team owners act with impunity while profiting off majority-Black players. Black players make the NBA and its teams what they are, generating fan involvement and billions in league revenue, all while white franchise owners create environments that encourage racist and sexist abuse of staff and players.
This isn’t the first time an NBA franchise owner has been exposed for racism and misogyny; in 2014, then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, was recorded on a racist and explicitly anti-Black tirade to his then-girlfriend, V. Stiviano. Sterling, like Sarver, accumulated his wealth through real estate, and previously had a racial discrimination lawsuit launched against him by former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor in addition to several federally prosecuted housing discrimination lawsuits. TMZ’s leak of the tape with Sterling’s racist rant, in which he ordered Stiviano not to associate with Black people, resulted in widespread outrage from both the Clippers players and the league at large. NBA players threatened to boycott playoff games if the NBA commissioner didn’t remove Sterling from the league quickly. Despite resistance from other white franchise owners, who could have kicked out Sterling if three quarters of them had voted to do so, commissioner Adam Sterling sided with players and unilaterally banned Sterling from the NBA for life.
The NBA has the power to take action against franchise owners who are racist, misogynistic, or otherwise discriminatory. Since the publishing of Baxter’s ESPN report, the NBA has asked a law firm to investigate the Phoenix Suns organization. The WNBA and NBA Players Association have also reviewed the allegations made against Sarver, with the WNBA opening up an investigation of their own. All that remains to be seen is whether or not these investigations result in concrete action, or a further denial of racist and misogynistic abuse. The NBA cannot continue to profit off the labour of Black staff and players without addressing and persecuting racist franchise owners.