As 2022 wraps up, SI staffers Jon Wertheim and Chris Almeida will discuss some of the themes of the year in sports. So far, they've covered sportswashing and what did (and didn't) change during a wild year in college sports. Up today: how leagues, in 2022, seemed to figure out how to push out problematic owners without a direct vote.
Chris Almeida: So this year has been quite a weird year for sports owners. Last November, ESPN published a story that revealed years of misconduct and pretty galling racist and sexist behavior on the part of Robert Sarver. And at first it seemed that maybe he would just get away with it, as the mega rich often do. The NBA spent about 10 months investigating Sarver and then announced in September that he would receive a one-year suspension and a $10 million fine.
But clearly the official punishment wasn’t the only lever that Adam Silver was using here. Because within a week of the punishment coming down, Sarver announced that he was looking for a buyer for the Suns and the Mercury. Over in football, Dan Snyder after years and years of creating a toxic workplace and antagonizing his team’s fans and just generally giving off the vibe that he’d rather die than admit wrongdoing seems to…maybe be moving toward what always seemed impossible: selling the Commanders.
