LeBron James Ripped Both Adam Silver And The NBA For Their Decision Regarding Suns Owner Robert Sarver
Jason Miller. Getty Images.I think when we all learned what the final outcome of the Robert Sarver investigation was going to be, it was pretty clear the league fucked up. When you read the reporting and what they discovered to have happened, it didn't really feel as though the final punishment fit the situation
Today, Adam Silver faced the media to talk about his decision, and as expected, he doubled down on it
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Yikes. If this wasn't bad enough, would you believe me if I told you things got worse for Silver? Howard Beck asked him a pretty great question about the difference in standards between an owner and anyone else who works for the league, and this was Silvers's response
Double yikes. I'm not sure what Adam Silver's goal was for his press conference today, but I do not think he achieved it. If anything, he made things much, much worse. It's one thing if fans and the media take their shots at Silver and the NBA, we've learned they they ultimately don't care. But when it's LeBron James?
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it's suddenly a much bigger issue. This is the face of your league, one of the greatest players to ever play and one of the biggest athletes on the planet. That has a different amount of weight. LeBron isn't alone, with Tamika Tremaglio who runs the NBA Players Association basically telling Silver the same thing
If the league thought this would maybe be swept under the rug after today, it looks like they are sorely mistaken. It wouldn't shock me if now that LeBron has publicly ripped both Silver and the league like this if Silver somehow finds a way to reverse his decision and ends up forcing Sarver to sell. I don't even know if you can backtrack like that in the NBA once a commissioner's rule is final, especially with how Silver spoke today. But that was at a time before LeBron weighed in. I think that changes everything.
With the season on the horizon and training camp opening in a few weeks, I can't imagine the league wants this to drag into the new season but I don't see this going away any time soon, nor should it. If nothing ends up happening in terms of a different decision, do the players end up doing something? I don't think you can rule that out. We saw the Clippers go that route during the Donald Sterling saga and it wouldn't shock me at all if the Suns players and other players around the league did something as well.