CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 16: Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, talks to the media during the NBA All Star Commissioner’s Media Availability as part of the 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend at Spectrum Center on February 16, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Prior to Wednesday night’s season opener in Phoenix, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly met with a contingent of Suns employees.
According to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, Silver apologized for the group, saying that the league should have done more to help them while they worked for years under abusive owner Robert Sarver.
“I’m incredibly empathetic to what many of you have lived through,” Silver said to a group of hundreds of employees, including some team executives and the team’s interim governor, Sam Garvin, who all gathered in the lower bowl of the team’s arena. hours before the game.
During a nearly hour-long address, Silver, sitting on a stool and holding a microphone, said: “To the extent that you feel let down by the league, I apologize. I take responsibility for that.”
On Sept. 13, Sarver was suspended one year and fined $10 million after a lengthy NBA investigation into myriad allegations of workplace misconduct against the majority owner.
Sarver was found to have made inappropriate sexual comments and used racial slurs, among other improprieties.
The owner of the Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury since 2004, Sarver announced shortly after the punishment that he is putting both teams up for sale.
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