Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver was suspended from the NBA and WNBA for a year and fined $10 million after an independent investigation into the toxic workplace culture he fostered over the last two decades, the NBA announced Tuesday.
The amount of the fine is the maximum allowed by the NBA constitution and by-laws. But it’s a relative slap on the wrist for a man whose net worth is estimated somewhere between $400 and $850 million, according to many media reports.
It amounts to about 1.17% of the high end of his reported net worth.
To further put that percentage into perspective, it would represent about $700 for someone making $60,000 a year.
Forbes estimates the Suns are worth $1.8 billion, making it the 18th-most valuable franchise in the NBA.
Sarver, 60, led an ownership group that purchased the Suns for about $400 million in 2004. He is the managing partner and owned about a 30% stake in the franchise at the time of the transaction, a percentage that’s worth about $540 million today.
Sarver, who grew up in Tucson and graduated from Arizona, accumulated his wealth in banking and real estate, starting as a part-time employee at his father’s company, American Savings and Loan. In 1984 he founded what would become the National Bank of Arizona, and six years later he co-founded Southwest Value Partners, a portfolio management and real estate investment firm.
In 2002 he became chairman and chief executive officer of Western Alliance Bancorporation, leading banks in Arizona, California and Nevada. He retired from the company and stepped down from its board of directors in April amid the NBA investigation.
The league’s investigation was conducted by the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz after allegations of racism, misogyny and bullying were detailed in an ESPN report in November 2021.
The investigation was based on interviews with 320 people, including Sarver and current and former employees, and the evaluation of more than 80,000 documents, including emails, text messages and videos.
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It determined Sarver said the N-word at least five times, engaged in inequitable conduct toward female employees, made sex-related comments in the workplace, inappropriate comments about the physical appearance of female employees and other women and engaged in inappropriate physical contact toward male employees.
But the investigation “made no finding” about whether Sarver’s workplace misconduct “was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.”