On September 14, Beijing time, NBA officially announced: banned against Sun boss Savo for one year (banned from participating in team affairs) and fined $10 million! According to ESPN, Savo believes that the league's punishment is too heavy, and the process of accepting the punishment is a bit difficult! But Savo can only cooperate with the NBA official to select interim president for the Suns.
Phoenix Suns officially issued a statement: "The team is committed to creating an environment that is free of discrimination and harassment, full of safety, respect and inclusiveness! The Suns have been cooperating with the NBA official investigation, and many current and departing employees have participated. In the 18 years since Savo took charge of the team, his behavior does not reflect the values of the Suns!"
What happened to Savo? Back to November 5, 2021, ESPN interviewed more than 70 Suns employees, including current and resigned employees, and many people accused the boss Savo of racial discrimination and demeaning women. After 10 months of investigation, NBA official visited 320 employees in the past 18 years, and finally announced the results of the investigation today. After the NBA penalty results were announced, Savo himself also issued a statement: "Although I do not agree with some details in the NBA report, I still have to apologize to the employees I offended before. I accept the official NBA penalty decision and take responsibility for everything I have done!" Savo's net worth is about $400 million, ranking last among NBA bosses.
NBA wrote in the investigation results: " Savo said words starting with the N letter at least 5 times, suspected of discriminating against female employees, and having improper physical contact with male employees (treat them severely). " Some media posted photos: Savo was the second boss of Paul after entering the NBA, and the previous one was Clippers former boss Sterling .
Compared with Sterling, Savon's punishment is not serious. Sterling's recording was exposed in 2014. He used racially discriminatory words many times, which attracted boycotts from all league players! The NBA official banned Sterling for life + fined $2.5 million, and forced Sterling to sell Clippers . In the end, Ballmer spent $2 billion to become the new boss of the Clippers.
At first, Sterling didn't want to sell the Clippers, and even sued the NBA League, but lost the case in the end. The NBA has always been severely punished for racial discrimination, or demeaning or harassing women. The most recent time was in September 2018, four years ago, the boss of Mavericks was fined $10 million, but was not banned.
NBA's maximum fine for bosses to violate regulations is $2.5 million, such as Sterling. But why were both Cuban and Savo fined $10 million? Because this 10 million does not need to be given to the alliance, but to social organizations or charities. Why did Cuban only fined and not be banned from participating in team affairs for one year? Don't worry, let's talk slowly.
In February 2018, Sports Illustrated wrote an article to reveal the existence of many incidents of harassing women within the Mavericks, including former team president Terdema Ussery, who was suspected of verbally teasing and making dirty gestures to female employees. After seven months of investigation, the NBA interviewed 215 witnesses and finally found that Cuban was unaware of it.
However, Cuban had poor management problems, and the Mavericks were unable to prevent these misconducts from happening. The alliance decided to fine Cuban $10 million. Savo was his own violation, while Cuban was his subordinate violation, so the two were punished differently. I hope this punishment will not affect the Suns' record next season. What do you think?
