Phoenix Suns in shock as Robert Sarver saga hangs over group coming into season

PHOENIX — The Suns are transferring on to a brand new chapter with proprietor Robert Sarver planning to promote the group, however the temper at media day revealed a group nonetheless in shock.

Sarver introduced his intentions final week following the outcomes of an NBA investigation. The main points of the report, which confirmed Sarver had a historical past of racist, sexist and misogynistic acts, appeared to shake the group.

Down the road, the important thing voices within the group arrived on the lectern with grim faces and the entire absence of pleasure {that a} media day usually generates.

“I used to be in disbelief,” coach Monty Williams mentioned. “If you see the bullet factors after which while you undergo it, um, you begin to consider how this stuff affect the individuals.”

“I’d say only a state of shock,” common supervisor James Jones mentioned. “You don’t need that across the group. You don’t need that to be the problem.”

“It was powerful, identical to anyone, studying all of the various things,” star guard Chris Paul mentioned. “It was extra so additionally the issues that folks must endure within the office.”

“That is powerful for me as a result of that is not the Robert Sarver that I do know, it is not the Robert that welcomed me to Phoenix with open arms,” mentioned Devin Booker, the longest-tenured Suns participant, who’s beginning his eighth season.

“However on the similar time, I am not insensitive to everyone that is concerned within the state of affairs. I perceive everyone’s private expertise with different persons are at all times going to be completely different.”

The report’s affirmation of Sarver’s repeated use of the N-word, which was delivered to mild by an ESPN investigation launched final 12 months, appeared to strike the strongest chord.

“That phrase, I do not prefer it, by no means have. Particularly once I was youthful and I discovered what that phrase meant. I discovered how demeaning it was towards humanity, not simply black of us,” Williams mentioned. “And once I noticed the report, I used to be not glad about it, fairly frankly, disgusted. It isn’t a phrase you repeat anytime. And while you learn the report, you learn the bullet factors and also you see it again and again in that manner, it bothers you.”

Jones mentioned he had not been involved with Sarver, which follows the NBA’s punishment that banned from the group for a 12 months. Paul mentioned he’d been involved frequently with NBA commissioner Adam Silver earlier than and after the ruling was introduced.

It was solely one of many points that was pulling on the group’s mojo from final 12 months’s 64-win season, which had been diminished to a footnote.

Veteran ahead Jae Crowder requested to not come to coaching camp, and the Suns introduced they’d granted the request Sunday. Crowder was knowledgeable over the summer season that he might lose his beginning job this season, sources mentioned, and it prompted him to request a commerce. The Suns had discussions about it all through the summer season however hadn’t discovered a deal but. Nevertheless it appears clear his time with the group is over.

“Jae introduced a variety of intangibles to the group, I feel all of our guys would communicate in that manner about him,” Williams mentioned. “On the similar time this stuff occur and it’s important to transition and transfer ahead. I completely am behind James and the way we’re dealing with this.”

There was additionally the entire lack of enthusiasm emanating from Deandre Ayton, who signed a four-year, $133 million provide sheet with the Indiana Pacers that the Suns rapidly matched. It ended a yearlong interval of tense talks between Ayton and the Suns over his future, and there gave the impression to be some scars.

“I simply let my brokers deal with it and I trusted my group,” the often jovial Ayton mentioned flatly. “I do not need to take any steps again.”

Through the offseason, Jones and Williams each signed extensions to stay with the franchise long run. As did Booker, who signed a $224 million extension that dedicated him to the Suns till 2028. The group can be returning the core of the roster than gained a league-best 64 video games final season, and there’s now readability that Sarver will not be a distraction.

However there was no positivity following from these strikes. Within the first 90 minutes of interviews, the one time a smile was cracked was when Booker made a joke about being on the quilt of the NBA 2K online game.

That does not even cowl the group’s transient discussions about buying and selling for Kevin Durant, which by no means progressed, and the group’s disastrous Sport 7 dwelling loss to the Dallas Mavericks final Might that began what turned out to be a largely disagreeable offseason.

“We have all grown and discovered and had an opportunity to see lights and completely different views for certain,” Williams mentioned. “And it is simply been a kind of summers that, fairly frankly, you may always remember.”