Somers: Players, sponsors might have the final say on Robert Sarver's future as Suns owner

While Suns and Mercury majority owner Robert Sarver is going away for a year, at least away from the franchise, the reverberations caused by his suspension and $10 million fine are strong and likely will remain so for quite some time.

That was confirmed Thursday when Suns vice chairman Jahm Najafi wrote an open letter to team employees, including players, calling for Sarver to resign.

And it was confirmed on Friday when PayPal announced it would not renew its sponsorship contract with the team if Sarver “remains involved” after his suspension ends.

We might not be able to exactly chart the complete arc of the Sarver story, but it’s clear we are not anywhere close to the end. Nor should we be.

Sarver behaved too badly for that. Among the findings by the law firm hired by the NBA to investigate: Sarver used the “N” word at least five times after smarter people had told him not to; he berated and humiliated employees, including telling a pregnant one that she couldn’t do her job after becoming a mother; and he made vulgar comments in the office.

In general, he often behaved like a cretin and a bully.

Sarver vs. Sterling: 2 NBA owners acted badly. Why was just 1 banned for life?

Sarver deserved more than a $10 million fine and a year’s suspension, a punishment Commissioner Adam Silver tried to justify in a news conference on Wednesday. He botched it and admitted NBA owners are held to a different standard than every other employee.

Silver usually handles such appearances deftly. Nothing much flusters him. But on Wednesday, he had the same look on his face that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did years ago when he tried to explain why he initially suspended running back Ray Rice for just two games.

It’s the look of a man trying to defend the indefensible.

Goodell lengthened the suspension after a video emerged of Rice punching his future wife. Sarver is fortunate there is no audio or video available of abhorrent behavior around the office. If there were, he would be an ex-owner very soon.

Silver, however, might not have the final word on Sarver’s punishment. PayPal is the first sponsor to threaten to stop writing checks to the Suns, or to send them money via an online payment service, if Sarver is allowed to return a year from now.

Will there be others? AT&T? Fry’s? Footprint? Sweet James Accident Attorneys?

And if so, do the Suns minority owners, most likely led by Najafi, make a strong push for Sarver to sell his share of the franchise, estimated to be about 35 percent. The Suns are worth around $2 billion, according to estimates, about $1.6 billion more than Sarver’s group bought them for in 2004. Thirty-five percent of that would be a nice parting gift for him.

Related: Suns select Sam Garvin as interim governor during Sarver suspension

We haven’t heard from many players and coaches yet, either. Lakers forward LeBron James tweeted “our league definitely got this wrong,” and “we hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it.”

Suns guard Chris Paul tweeted Sarver’s punishment “fell short in truly addressing what we can all agree was atrocious behavior,” and that Sarver’s conduct, especially toward women, “is unacceptable and must never be repeated.”

But other than Paul, Suns players have been quiet about the transgressions of their owner and his punishment. Coach Monty Williams, who signed a contract extension this off-season, hasn’t weighed in yet, either.

All that will change on Sept. 26, when the team holds a media day prior to the beginning of trading camp.

Read more: What's next for Suns after NBA actions against owner Robert Sarver?

After an ESPN story last November brought Sarver’s behavior to light, Williams noted that all those allegations happened prior to 2019, when he was hired by the Suns.

“Based on that you all know about me, the little you know about me,” Williams said, “if any of that stuff happened while I was here, I wouldn’t be in this seat.”

Back then, Sarver was denying almost all of the allegations. Via e-mail, he said it accusations of him using the "N-word" were "100 percent false."

The league's investigation found them to be 100 percent true. The same for numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

Williams called himself one of the caretakers of the franchise. How does he feel now given the findings of the NBA’s investigation?

Does he or any players take a similar stance to PayPal’s, which is: If Sarver is here, then I’m not?

Conspiracy theorists might say this is what Silver planned all along by not suspending Sarver for a longer period and not pushing for Sarver to sell his share of the franchise. That he instead decided to let public opinion, and those of sponsors, players and coaches, dictate if that course of action was appropriate.

But on Wednesday, Silver looked more like a man trying to survive the moment than one who had concocted an elaborate scheme.

There is so much we don’t know, but a couple of things we do.

Sarver got off easy, and this story is far from over.

More from Somers: NBA should've taken the Suns away from Robert Sarver

Reach Kent Somers at Kent.Somers@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @kentsomers. Hear Somers every Monday and Friday at 7:30 a.m. on The Drive with Jody Oehler on Fox Sports 910 AM.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Somers: Suspension, fine won't be the end to the Robert Sarver story