{"id":148180,"date":"2021-10-23T02:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T02:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=148180"},"modified":"2021-10-23T02:58:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T02:58:12","slug":"nba-in-damage-control-over-sexism-racism-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=148180","title":{"rendered":"NBA in damage control over sexism, racism claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns<\/a> released a statement regarding a potential media investigation into the workplace culture of the franchise, denying that the organisation or owner Robert Sarver have a history of racism or sexism.<\/p>\n

The statement said the organization is aware that ESPN is working on a story accusing the organisation of misconduct on a \u201cvariety of topics.\u201d The Suns responded by saying they were \u201ccompletely baseless claims\u201d and \u201cdocumentary evidence in our possession and eyewitness accounts directly contradict the reporter\u2019s accusations, and we are preparing our response to his questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Conor McGregor accused of attack on Italian DJ<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Ben Simmons accused of 'faking injury and mental illness'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Max Verstappen boycotts 'fake' Drive to Survive Netflix series<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sarver \u2014 a Phoenix businessman \u2014 has owned the Suns since 2004.<\/p>\n

Suns general manager James Jones, who is Black, said in the team\u2019s response: \u201cNone of what\u2019s been said describes the Robert Sarver I know, respect and like \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The franchise is coming off one of the most successful seasons in its history, making the NBA Finals with stars Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton before losing in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Suns have made the Finals three times, in 1976, 1993 and 2021, but have never won a championship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Suns coach Monty Williams addressed the media before the team's game against the Lakers in Los Angeles, saying he was aware of the potential report but said he didn't want to \u201ccomment about it until I have time to process a lot of information and get everything I need to know about the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he didn't expect the situation would be a distraction for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing will invade or erode our culture," Williams said. "That's something we've said from Day 1. Wins, losses, we get to play basketball, we get to hoop and that's not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The potential investigation came to light when league analyst Jordan Schultz posted a message on social media that said the league was preparing for a \u201cmassive\u201d story and that if there is \u201cenough evidence to support such claims, there\u2019s a real chance the league would forcibly remove Sarver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarver and the Suns responded with a lengthy statement. The 59-year-old Sarver also owns the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I can\u2019t begin to know how to respond to some of the vague suggestions made by mostly anonymous voices, I can certainly tell you that some of the claims I find completely repugnant to my nature and to the character of the Suns\/Mercury workplace and I can tell you they never, ever happened,\u201d Sarver said.<\/p>\n

Not even a full week into the season, the NBA now has yet another potentially significant issue on its hands \u2014 even without knowing the full scope of the accusations that the Suns say are coming.<\/p>\n

The statements from the Suns came two days after Boston center Enes Kanter called for Tibetan independence, comments that prompted a Chinese broadcasting partner to stop streaming Celtics games in the basketball-crazed country.<\/p>\n

There are also two high-profile players sidelined for various reasons, with Brooklyn not allowing Kyrie Irving to be around their team until he gets vaccinated against the coronavirus and Philadelphia\u2019s Ben Simmons not participating in practices or games with the 76ers after seeking a trade that has yet to be made.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns released a statement regarding a potential media investigation into the workplace culture of the franchise, denying that the organisation or owner Robert […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148182,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148180\/revisions\/148182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}