“Sarver’s indefensible behavior was much more striking than Donald Sterling’s jealousy and his black inferiority complexes”
It could be said that the Guardian, signed by Etan Thomas, joins the party of LeBron James: the punishment in Sarverthe Phoenix boss fined (for 10 million) and suspended for a year for using racist epithets against his employees and for some mistreatment of workers, it’s not severe enough.
Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life. What Robert Sarver of the Phoenix Suns did was worse, much worse, but he got him a kind of slap on the wrist. Something different was expected.
The Guardian explains the position of Adam Silver, NBA commissioner. Who believes that Sarver’s situation is not comparable to that of Donald Sterling, who was disbarred from the NBA. For the latter, it was in fact evident a “racist conduct directed at a select group of people”. In Sarver’s case – although it remains, in Silver’s opinion, “indefensible” – the circumstances in which certain words are used do not make them strong enough to predict worse consequences. So declares the commissioner. Sarver himself claims “40 years of support for inclusion”, and for having “dedicated time and resources to the struggle for equality and the support of disadvantaged communities”. It is an idea that the Guardian does not share.
It was fair to expect zero tolerance of racism, fanaticism, hatred and misogyny, as was the case with Sterling, when the NBA was quick to declare that “feelings of this kind are contrary to the inclusion and respect that exist. at the base of our multicultural and multiethnic league “.
Also because according to the Guardian …
… It could be argued that Robert Sarver’s “indefensible” behavior for nearly two decades was far more egregious than Donald Sterling’s recording, which portrays him as a jealous boyfriend with an inferiority complex towards blacks.
The conclusions of Etan Thomas.
“If my grandfather were alive today, he would tell Adam Silver, Robert Sarver, Brian Scalabrine and any other white person that there is no white person who uses the ‘N’ word in a non-racist way. If my grandmother were alive, she would tell him about the many decades she had to endure humiliating misogyny, dealing with sexist pigs in the workplace: in 2022 she is intolerable. If the NBA is serious about its progressive values and wants to position itself as the reality that has historically taken a leadership role in matters of racial discrimination, equality, respect for women, etc., then no one can be above the law. . Not even a billionaire. “
