The ESPN article from Baxter Holmes that had been teased a couple weeks ago finally dropped on Thursday, November 4. This story was as damning and troubling as had been speculated when the news of the article was leaked last month. The story runs through a timeline of Sarver’s tenure as the owner of the Suns. It then provides accounts of racial misconduct and inappropriate actions and comments towards women over his 17-year run as owner. It paints a picture of a man who is mad with power and wants to exert that power over his subordinates without any accountability.

I do not want to go over all of the incidents that were displayed in the Holmes’ story, you can go read that for yourselves if you haven’t already. However, I will comment that if true, these actions are hard to swallow. As a society we don’t want to believe that just in the last 10 years we can still be in a place where racial and sexist actions can take place with no repercussions. To reiterate, if true, the use of the N-word by Sarver is upsetting, the dread created for women is sickening, and the culture of fear of retaliation and a belief that nobody can help you as an employee is all together frightening. For the sake of the current and former employees of the Suns, I hope none of these accusations hold any weight.

These stories and account are incredibly striking to the soul. It is very easy to make quick aspersions on someone when this type of piece comes out. It is even easier when it is someone such as Robert Sarver who already garners much hate in this market from fans. There is a large faction of Suns fans out there that have been clamoring for Sarver to sell the team for years. It has been widely known that Sarver is a meddling owner and up until recently, it has led to the Suns reaching the lowest depths of their franchise in terms of success on the court. It is almost ironic that when the team finally makes their epic comeback to the upper echelon of the NBA, that this is when Sarver may finally be ousted as owner of the Phoenix Suns.

Do not get it twisted. If even half of the accusations in this ESPN article are found true, Sarver is gone. I trust that the NBA will do a thorough and honest investigation in conjunction with the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. This investigation could take months, but we all need to remember that no facts have been laid out for us quite yet. We have accusations of former employees and a strong denial of wrongdoing by Robert Sarver. Once the NBA has released the results of their investigation, then we can think and speak more clearly on the situation in front of us. We know that Adam Silver is not afraid to remove an owner from their franchise and he will certainly do it again if needed. Until then the Suns’ players need to keep playing ball.

I do believe the players when they say that they have not seen or heard any of these types of interactions that were displayed in the article. Many of these incidents have to do with the non-basketball operations side of the organization. In addition, the strong presence in the locker room of Chris Paul and Devin Booker makes it feel unlikely that Robert Sarver would attempt to overstep his bounds with them. Also, Monty Williams is a man of strong conviction and will, sympathy, empathy, and a true sense of right and wrong. He is not a coach of Suns past that lacks the pedigree in which Robert Sarver would feel free to exert his power over. This current construction of the suns has likely never seen a version of Robert Sarver that is depicted in the ESPN article.

Furthermore, I have great doubts that this story is going to impact the ability of the Suns to perform on the court. In the time since this story has been released, they have won both of their games. This includes a come from behind victory against the Hawks on Saturday night. The players and coaches are professionals in the highest sense of the word with true leaders at the helm.

So, for now we will continue to watch the Suns play good basketball in their hopes to get back to the NBA finals and win it all this time. We will all just have to wait as the impending results of this NBA investigation linger out in front of us.