Tag: paypal

Robert Sarver agreeing to sell the Suns does the NBA’s other 29 owners a favor

Voting Sarver out would have set the stage for how other owners could be removed.

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What’s good y’all. It’s Prince here with another Layup Lines, and I want to talk about Robert Sarver for a minute. The Phoenix Suns owner released a statement Wednesday saying he’s beginning the process of seeking buyers for both the Suns and Phoenix Mercury, bringing closer the end to a saga I was sure would drag out longer.

Rather than digging in and making the situation much more difficult, Sarver seems willing to bow out (read: cash out) a lot quieter than Donald Sterling — besides the disingenuous words in his statement.

There was certainly pressure for him to step away — from a Suns minority owner, a corporate sponsor and several NBA players — but he didn’t have to. Entitled billionaires typically require a little more than a few words to make them go away. So was there pressure behind the scenes to expedite his decision?

Players were the most vocal about their displeasure with the lenient one-year ban Sarver received from the league. That includes LeBron James, the Suns’ Chris Paul and most recently Draymond Green, who on Tuesday called for a vote of the other 29 owners to have Sarver removed.

A public ousting would have been much more embarrassing for Sarver, and it also would have furthered a precedent for how the other owners could be removed themselves. So, naturally, a vote is the last thing they would have wanted. Voting also would have required three-fourths of the owners to agree on Sarver’s removal, and whether or not it passed, anyone who voted against it would have had to answer why.

The heat Sarver brought on himself was starting to get a little too hot for the league, and by extension, the other owners. So his decision to sell just a week after the NBA announced findings of its investigation — and a week before teams host media days — saves them a lot of trouble. That’s not to say the other owners definitely played a quiet role in his decision to step away, but they absolutely benefit in it going away like this.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

When Robert Sarver sells the Phoenix Suns, the other 29 NBA team owners won’t be the only ones benefitting from it. Nope, Sarver himself, will be a big winner too.

That’s right, the “punishment” for his disgusting behavior as a person charged with running an NBA franchise is having to sell that franchise for almost $2 billion. Poor him.

My guy Sykes put the proper context around Sarver’s eventual sale. It’s not a punishment, it’s a privilege.

“He blames an ‘unforgiving climate’ as the reason he must sell the franchise he owns currently valued at $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. Clearly, there’s no such thing as accountability in the world of Robert Sarver. There’s no mention of the derogatory, offensive and straight-up hateful behavior and language he’s used to harm people. Instead, he finds time to cite the ‘good’ he’s done ‘or could still do’ — as if it weren’t a decades-long track record that got him here in the first place.

He makes it seem as if he’s just a boy who the world has chosen to punish for past misdeeds. Woe is him. He’s just another victim of the heinous cancel culture that eventually comes for us all.

But don’t get it twisted. Sarver is no victim here. What sort of victim leaves a situation where they’ve spent decades doing damage only to become $2 billion richer than they were in the first place?

Make no mistake — Sarver having to sell his team isn’t a punishment. If anything, it’s a privilege. One that only the richest of the rich could ever afford to have in our society.”

Shootaround

— Ranking NBA teams by future first-round draft picks, from least to most

— Is this photo of bald LeBron James fake?

— 15 photos from the Aces’ championship parade, Las Vegas’ first ever title parade.

— Are the Nets headed towards contention? Check out HoopsHype’s Nets season preview.

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Suns jersey sponsor PayPal wants Robert Sarver out, but booting him from NBA requires more pressure

PayPal will end its partnership with the Suns if Sarver remains involved with the team.

Phoenix Suns governor Robert Sarver’s one-year suspension is an example of a punishment that doesn’t fit the crime. It isn’t nearly severe enough considering the racism, misogyny and sexism uncovered by the NBA’s investigation of his workplace conduct.

The lenient punishment has drawn criticism from all corners of the basketball world, including LeBron James and Chris Paul. The latest to show disappointment in commissioner Adam Silver’s ruling is PayPal, a sponsor of the Suns whose logo is proudly displayed on the front of their jerseys.

On Friday, PayPal said if Sarver remains involved with the Suns once their current deal expires at the end of the season, the company will end its partnership with the team.

“PayPal is a values-driven company and has a strong record of combatting racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination,” PayPal CEO and president Dan Schulman said in a statement. “We have reviewed the report of the NBA league’s independent investigation into Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver and have found his conduct unacceptable and in conflict with our values. PayPal’s sponsorship with the Suns is set to expire at the end of the current season. In light of the findings of the NBA’s investigation, we will not renew our sponsorship should Robert Sarver remain involved with the Suns organization, after serving his suspension.”

PayPal isn’t simply calling for a more severe punishment. The company is joining a chorus of people who want Sarver permanently removed. This is the first big domino to fall in his potential sale of the team, because once money starts talking, people have to listen.

While PayPal’s statement is important, however, it’s just a first step in a battle that will require even more pressure on Sarver, the NBA and other team owners. In a press conference on Wednesday, Silver called the potential removal of a team from its owner a “very involved process.” In other words, it’s a headache he or the league doesn’t want. And the NBA already has support from another sponsor, with Kia saying Friday it stands with the league.

If the NBA is going to be pressured to remove Sarver, it’s going to take more sponsors to come out on the side of PayPal. Under Paragraph 13 of the NBA constitution, via Forbes, NBA owners can only strip another owner of their team, by three-fourths vote, if that owner “fails to fulfill” a “contractual obligation” in “such a way as to affect the [NBA] or its members adversely.”

Sarver’s behavior and the subsequent PR should qualify as adversely affecting the NBA on its own. But if not, a loss of sponsors and league revenue certainly would. More importantly, losing money could make Sarver decide to voluntarily sell the team rather than put a legal fight in court over a forced sale.

The last instance of a team being removed from an owner was the Los Angeles Clippers and Donald Sterling, which resulted in a lawsuit that the league had to settle. And even that sale required Sterling’s wife, Shelley, to first remove him from the family trust in order to take control of the Clippers.

The sponsors are important because Sarver is only going to dump the team when it’s not worth his time or energy to own it anymore. The only people who can make him feel that way are the people who make him money. The players could also potentially make his life more difficult, but it would be an even worse look for the NBA if players have to step away from their professions to do something it should have taken care of in the first place.

Selling the team, of course, is hardly a punishment itself. Sarver bought the Suns for $401 million in 2004. The team is now worth $1.8 billion, according to last year’s Forbes analysis. That doesn’t make it any less necessary and the added outside pressure will be hard to ignore.

It wasn’t until the Washington Commanders’ stadium sponsor FedEx threatened to pull its partnership before team owner Daniel Snyder agreed to change the team’s name. Similar action from Suns stadium sponsor Footprint would go a long way towards putting similar pressure on Sarver. PayPal alone isn’t enough, but it is a good start.

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