Despite backlash to Sarver ruling, NBA confident one year is sufficient for you to completely forget
Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports
While unrest grows around the league following the relatively mild sanctions imposed on Suns owner Robert Sarver, the NBA this week has reiterated its belief that a single year suspension is ample time for the wider public to forget about the entire thing and completely move on. “This is the harshest penalty the league can impose without causing the remaining owners to worry about the skeletons in their own closets,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday, fresh from a session of wagging his finger in Sarver’s face and instructing him to really think about what he did. “Right now we have no reason to go any further when our myopic and fickle fan base will soon be distracted by the next Lakers trade rumour or Kyrie Irving Instagram post.” Silver, who reminded the assembled reporters that a lack of audio-visual evidence would only accelerate the story’s departure from the public eye, acknowledged that circumstances were still open to change. “If the public backlash does continue to grow, it may very well get to the point where it hurts our bottom line - at that point we will move much more strongly against Mr Sarver alongside carefully crafted messaging about our moral duty as stewards of the game. Until that point, however, we look forward to welcoming him back as the figurehead of a team in this league after he has attended one of those money-grabbing unconscious bias seminars and provided a pinky promise that he is not racist.” Mr Sarver was unavailable for comment, but was spotted in public wearing a bandage on his wrist as it recovers from the NBA’s slap.
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