Good morning.

The House is Burning!, Edvard Munch, 1925-27

A well-foreshadowed story from ESPN about alleged racism and misogyny by Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury controlling partner Robert Sarver hit on Thursday. It’s by Baxter Holmes and the allegations are disgusting. Earl Watson, previously hired and fired by Sarver as Suns head coach, alleges use of the N-word in conversation with him.

After the loss, Suns majority owner Robert Sarver entered the coaches locker room, Watson told ESPN.

"You know, why does Draymond Green get to run up the court and say [N-word]," Sarver, who is white, allegedly said, repeating the N-word several times in a row.

"You can't say that," Watson, who is Black and Hispanic, told Sarver.

"Why?" Sarver replied. "Draymond Green says [N-word]."

"You can't f---ing say that," Watson said again.

Dozens of other sources (most of whom remain anonymous) tell Holmes of Sarver using deeply unsettling language and empowering a culture of toxicity. This includes more N-words — no, Earl Watson is not the only person who alleges Sarver used the N-word in their presence — and almost cliché sexism, including discussion of Sarver’s sex life and uncomfortable compliments toward female employees. There is also a good detailing of Sarver being a generally ridiculous presence in basketball operations. One example:

It was far from the first time members of the coaching staff felt like Sarver had marginalized them. Watson remembers Sarver drawing up plays that didn't exist in the locker room. "He was asking [players] to set up a pick-and-roll in the middle of the paint. How is that even possible with three seconds and no spacing?"

Sarver denies everything. Well, almost everything. He acknowledges he showed marketing staff a photo of his wife clad in a Suns bikini (he explains that the company sent him a sample and he was just showing staff what it looked like in case they wanted to work with the vendor) and he acknowledges he pantsed a junior employee during the team’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge effort. The junior employee remains mortified; Sarver calls it a joke that he later found inappropriate. (Sarver was 53 years old at the time. He pantsed a 25-year-old employee who had just joined the franchise.) This former staffer is the only person Sarver apologizes to in his responses to the story.

Beyond all of the racism and misogyny, there’s a thorough accounting of what a bad place to work the Suns franchise has been. Sarver’s defenders frame this as creating a “demanding workplace” where everyone works hard to achieve goals. The current and former employees themselves reveal that it’s just plain toxic and destructive.

The NBA has announced it will investigate using an independent law firm. Suns players demurred and Monty Williams, as you would expect, said really sensible things about letting the investigation play out. Players did not appear to consider sitting out games to protest the reported behavior. The players’ union applauded the league investigation. Sarver did skip the Suns’ Thursday home game and one member of the franchise ownership group did come out on the record to acknowledge the seriousness of the accusations. Watson, who is an assistant coach with the Raptors now, put out a statement saying he’s not interested in reliving the episode every day (basically, don’t ask me questions about this) and making a good point that his long NBA career afforded him the opportunity to go on the record for ESPN whether others could not. Hopefully those folks can go on the record to league investigators.

What now?

There does not appear to be video or audio of Sarver’s remarks at any time, so this is not a Donald Sterling situation. You need to also recall that the reason Sterling got pushed out is two-fold: immense pressure from players, the players’ union and sponsors led Adam Silver to ban Sterling from NBA participation within days of the audio surfacing, and then Sterling’s wife convinced a judge that Sterling was mentally unfit and basically took control of his businesses from him before agreeing to sell the team for a record amount to Steve Ballmer. Pressure is not happening right now (maybe it will after an investigation, but James Jones has gone above and beyond to go to bat for Sarver, and James Jones has some really important relationships in the players’ union to say the least) and Sarver is not going to get declared mentally unfit.

The Hawks’ Bruce Levenson situation is mentioned as well; that’s completely beside the point because a) there were emails and b) Levenson quickly decided he wanted to exit the conversation and sold his share of the team. Sarver is denying almost everything. It doesn’t seem like he’s planning to concede and sell the team for enormous profit. It seems like he’s going to fight.

In the case of the Dallas Mavericks’ toxic work environment investigation, the result was a significant fine and … that’s about it. Mark Cuban suffered no real consequences from allowing a culture of sexual harassment and violence to thrive under his watch.

This is all to say that this is not a slam dunk case for the NBA to force Sarver to sell, even if it should be, assuming the allegations (of which there are A LOT) are found to be credible.

Peers need to step up

Honestly, it should not be on the players (via strike) or fans (via boycott) to police this. It’s up to Sarver’s peers to address this.

Depending on what comes out of the league investigation, the other 29 NBA franchise governors should feel a real responsibility to address it by punishing Sarver severely up to voting to suspend him from participation in league activities indefinitely. Even if it’s not going to be possible to fully kick him out of the exclusive NBA team owners’ club by forcing him to sell, remove the benefits he derives from being in the club. Make him a pariah. Strip him of participation in league committees. Ban him from games. Let him know that if the Suns happen to win the championship, it won’t be him lifting that trophy at center court. He won’t be on a parade float.

I am skeptical NBA franchise owners will rebuke one of their own. Pressure from the NBA community could change that.

Since Sarver is not arriving to self-awareness and atonement himself, the onus is on Sarver’s peers — in the NBA and in the Phoenix business world — to make him a pariah, to lead him to the path of acknowledgement of the hurt he has allegedly caused, to show real contrition to the people he has hurt, to atone. Clearly, reading how people in the franchise say he has hurt them is not enough for him to take that path.

Protect current employees … now

There’s one additional step that the NBA should be prepared to take in situations like this. Given the detailed accusations of the toxic work environment that Sarver has allegedly empowered and contributed to, the NBA should appoint someone immediately to perform direct oversight of the franchise’s operations to protect employees from further damage and potential retribution. Letting the folks defending Sarver and Sarver himself continue to run the franchise while investigating such serious allegations is not tenable. The interim overseer should not be a future candidate for a permanent leadership position with the Suns, either. The employees impacted by Sarver’s way of running the team deserve and need protection right now, and the NBA is in best position to provide it.

This should happen yesterday. It’s unconscionable that Suns employees have to go into the office this morning to report to bosses that have allowed this to happen, some of whom (including James Jones) continue to defend Sarver. Assigning an interim caretaker should be standard operating procedure for the NBA when investigating toxic work environment accusations.

People were hurt here. It is a moral responsbility of the leadership of Suns organization to protect and atone. If they will not do that in order to defend and protect Sarver, it is a moral responsibility of the leadership of the NBA to do it for the victims.

Scores

Sixers 109, Pistons 98 — Philly keeps rolling, Seth Curry’s flaming hot start continues, but Cade Cunningham had the best game of his career to date: 18 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. Still shot poorly and had three turnovers, but still better than it’s been.

Jazz 116, Hawks 98

Celtics 95, Heat 78 — Best game of the season for Boston by orders of magnitude. The defense was sharp and benefited from ice cold Miami shooting; the Boston bench also finally woke up. Celtics are back?

Rockets 111, Suns 123

Thunder 107, Lakers 104 — Oof. Guess the Lakers haven’t turned it around just yet. OKC came back from down 19. LeBron is out a week with an abdominal strain and L.A. really missed having his playmaking as only Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony hit double-digit scoring. I thought RWB would solve the playmaking deficit on the team with LeBron out, but that hasn’t happened.

Watch Quentin Richardson and Jamal Crawford react to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pulling up from the logo. Absurd.

NBA @NBA

.@JCrossover and @QRich can't get enough of the Shai triple 🔥

November 5th 2021

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(Q-Rich and JCrossover are doing an alternative NBA Cast every Thursday. Great idea.)

Schedule

Busy weekend schedule, of course, with little on national TV. Crank up that League Pass subscription! All times Eastern.

FRIDAY
Nets at Pistons, 7
Spurs at Magic, 7
Grizzlies at Wizards, 7
Cavaliers at Raptors, 7:30
Knicks at Bucks, 7:30, ESPN
Clippers at Wolves, 8
Pelicans at Warriors, 10, ESPN
Pacers at Blazers, 10
Hornets at Kings, 10

SATURDAY
Rockets at Nuggets, 5
Jazz at Heat, 7:30, NBA TV
Sixers at Bulls, 8
Celtics at Mavericks, 8:30
Hawks at Suns, 10
Lakers at Blazers, 10:30, NBA TV

SUNDAY
Nets at Raptors, 3:30
Cavaliers at Knicks, 6
Jazz at Magic, 6
Bucks at Wizards, 6
Pacers at Kings, 6
Spurs at Thunder, 7, NBA TV
Rockets at Warriors, 8:30
Hornets at Clippers, 9

Alright, that’s all I’ve got. Be excellent to each other.