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      Las Vegas Aces Beat Sun for First WNBA Championship

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      The Aces shook off their reputation for being better in the regular season by holding off several rallies by the Sun.UNCASVILLE, Conn. — With a championship on the line for a team with some of the W.N.B.A.’s biggest stars, the Las Vegas Aces leaned on Riquna Williams, who had scored in double digits just twice this postseason.Williams raised her index finger to her lips to silence the Connecticut Sun’s white-knuckled fans in Game 4 of the finals as she hit one big shot after another in the fourth quarter. The last of her 17 points came on a step-back shot just inside the 3-point line over the outstretched arms of Natisha Hiedeman. Guard Kelsey Plum raised her hands, and Williams ran around the court with her arms spread wide as Sun fans began to leave.The Aces defeated the Sun, 78-71, on Sunday to win their first W.N.B.A. championship, their postseason reflecting the regular-season dominance that led them to tie Chicago for the best record in the league.The Aces led by as many as 10 but had to fight off several furious rallies by the Sun before clinching the title in the final minutes of Las Vegas’s third win in the best-of-five series. Chelsea Gray led the Aces with 20 points and was named the most valuable player of the finals.“I worked so hard for this,” Gray said as she became emotional and her teammates cheered.The Las Vegas Aces had long been considered better in the regular season than in the playoffs.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesGray and the Aces’ loaded roster kept Las Vegas a step ahead of the league all season. Four Aces were named All-Stars — A’ja Wilson, Plum, Jackie Young and Dearica Hamby — and Plum was voted M.V.P. of the All-Star Game. Wilson won her second league M.V.P. Award and was named the defensive player of the year. Becky Hammon, in her first season with the team, was named the league’s coach of the year.But coming into Game 4, Williams, who scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, hadn’t scored more than 14 points all season. The Sun held Wilson to just 11 points on Sunday, her third-lowest scoring performance of the playoffs.“I got a group of really resilient players,” Hammon said, adding: “You saw different people step up at different moments tonight and that’s what makes us difficult to beat.”The Aces finished with the best regular-season record in two of the past three seasons and second in the year they didn’t finish first. The Seattle Storm swept them in the 2020 finals. Las Vegas had shouldered the reputation of being a team good enough to win in the regular season but not able — or willing — to make the adjustments needed to succeed in the postseason. Its star-laden roster was seemingly too talented for its own good, with the best players often leaning on the isolation basketball they excel in but that has kept the Aces from closing out championships.This year, a large group of fans in red, black and gold Aces gear made their way down to the lower levels of Mohegan Sun Arena as the Las Vegas players flooded the court after the game. It was an invaluable moment for Gray.“I’ve been on two teams and that was loud,” Gray said of the Aces fans. “They’re going to celebrate us, and we’re going to celebrate them.”Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray had 20 points and 6 assists on Sunday. She was named the most valuable player of the finals.Jessica Hill/Associated PressLast season, the Aces lost the decisive Game 5 of the semifinals to the Phoenix Mercury, who celebrated on the Aces’ home floor. Gray said that ending had stuck in her mind since.“And now I’ll just have a different replay in my head,” Gray said with a smile.As the buzzer sounded on Sunday, the Aces players — now champions — yelled and hugged each other, their cheers of excitement bouncing around an otherwise quiet stadium that had been rocked with the deafening roars of Sun fans just moments before.As Connecticut players exited the court in tears, Sun center Jonquel Jones walked the length of the floor into the Aces’ celebration to hug and congratulate Wilson. As Jones walked away, she paused to clap and thank the fans that remained before heading to the locker room. Jones dominated the Aces physically in the Sun’s lone win of the series in Game 3, and she nearly led them to another victory in Game 4.Wilson spoke highly of Jones after the game.“I had to go and speak to her because she played her heart out,” Wilson said of Jones, who was last season’s M.V.P. “It’s so hard to guard her, and I just have all the most respect for J.J.”The loss for the Sun, the No. 3 seed, is another disappointing finish for a franchise with the second most wins in W.N.B.A. history but no championships. For the second straight game, Sun forward Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double. She is the only player to have a triple-double in a W.N.B.A. finals game.Hammon said it was a “battle” to beat the Sun. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” she said.Bill Laimbeer, who had been the Aces’ coach for four years, stepped down before the season. The Aces hired Hammon, who had been an assistant with the N.B.A.’s San Antonio Spurs. She took over a team led by Wilson, who won her first M.V.P. Award in 2020.Riquna Williams of the Las Vegas Aces hit big shot after big shot during the fourth quarter of the championship-clinching victory.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesAs Hammon guided the Aces to the first seed, she said she saw glimpses of the style of play that had kept the Aces from winning a title. But that shifted in the Aces’ semifinal win over the Storm, during which Hammon said the players were “choosing each other” and learned how to “take a punch.”That proved true as the Aces found ways to win playoff games while their stars struggled and they faced deficits — precisely what happened on Sunday — finally shaking the reputation of a team with unfulfilled potential.Hammon thanked Laimbeer for putting the team together and praised her players.“What I’m most proud of is we became a real team out here, and a team that cares about each other and trusts each other,” she said.Hammon said it was a “little surreal” to win her first W.N.B.A. championship. She played in the league for more than a decade, including several seasons with the Las Vegas franchise when it was in San Antonio.She said the Aces had “tremendous leadership” among the players, and that they had persisted when they weren’t playing well during the season. She applauded Williams for coming through on Sunday when the Aces had been struggling to score.“She knows she’s got the ultimate green light,” Hammon said.Wilson also spoke about growth — hers and the team’s.“I know who I am now more than ever,” Wilson said. “I feel like I’ve established myself in this league. And the Aces aren’t done yet.” More

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      WNBA Upgrades to Charter Flights for Finals

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      For the first time ever, the W.N.B.A. is providing charter flights throughout the finals. Aces and Sun players are loving it — and hope it becomes permanent.UNCASVILLE, Conn. — There were “oohs and aahs” of excitement as the Connecticut Sun players entered their chartered plane on the way to Las Vegas for Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. finals, guard Nia Clouden said.Waiting for them were pillows and blankets, seats that fully reclined and a generous menu of complimentary food. Clouden typically never eats the roasted salted almonds, cookies, chips and other snacks offered on the team’s commercial flights. But on that night, she ordered a pepperoni pizza.Sun center Jonquel Jones pointed to the long legs that make up part of her 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame to show how the leg room on the charter flight made a difference for her. She usually tries to find the exit row seat on flights, but the space is never enough. Jones said she was also happy to avoid “all the unnecessary stuff that happens at airports.”“Sometimes after a game, you don’t really feel like talking, and you go to the airport and people want to talk about the game,” Jones said while laughing. “Or they want to ask you how tall you are — constantly — all the time. ‘How’s the weather up there?’ And it’s just like, dude, I’m just trying to get to the next destination.”She added: “As much as we love our fans — we appreciate them — sometimes it does really get a little exhausting, and it makes the season a little bit tougher.”This season, for the first time ever, the league agreed to provide charter travel throughout the W.N.B.A. finals. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said that the league does not have enough revenue to cover travel for all teams during the regular season and playoffs, which she estimated would cost more than $20 million. Teams fly commercially during the season and playoffs, with rare exceptions for extreme travel difficulties.Athletes in major professional sports leagues like the N.F.L., N.B.A. and M.L.B., and even many men’s and women’s Division I athletes, have grown accustomed to charter travel. But those men’s leagues have been around much longer than the W.N.B.A. and have billions of dollars of revenue, while the women’s league regularly operates at a loss.The W.N.B.A. hasn’t committed to offering charter flights for next year’s finals or expanding them to the regular season or any other part of the playoffs. Engelbert said the league was able to provide charters for the finals because of its efforts to increase revenue.“As we focus on growing this league by adding more corporate partners, increasing media exposure and disrupting the outdated media rights valuations of women’s sports,” Engelbert said in a statement, “it would be our hope to continue offering these opportunities when possible.”More on the W.N.B.A.Swan Song: Sue Bird, who had said she would retire after this season, shepherded the Seattle Storm to the playoffs. The team’s loss on Sept. 7 marked the end of her incredible career.Greatness Overshadowed: Sylvia Fowles, who has also announced her retirement from basketball, is one of the most successful American athletes ever. Why isn’t she better known?A Critical Eye: As enthusiasm for women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A grows, fans are becoming more demanding of the league and more vocal about their wishes.Making the Style Rules: Players in women’s basketball are styling themselves before the games. Their choices are an expression of their freedom, and can be lucrative too.The W.N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union prohibits teams from chartering flights without league approval. The Liberty were fined $500,000 for secretly traveling to several games by charter last season.So players fly commercially, dealing with the delays, Covid risks and the many flight challenges that everyday customers also deal with. If you’re wondering why professional athletes should have different travel standards anyway, many W.N.B.A. players said it started with rest.Having a relaxing night’s sleep is paramount for playing in a 36-game regular season — with half of those games on the road — when a player’s future salary and place in the league depend on their performance each night, players said. Rest can be especially challenging on a commercial flight for the tall humans that occupy women’s basketball teams. But more important, delays and flight cancellations can result in teams’ having to forfeit games.The Aces forfeited a game in 2018 after dealing with over 25 hours of delays and layovers on their way to Washington, D.C., to play the Mystics. They arrived just four hours ahead of their game. The Aces cited health concerns as the reason not to play and were the first team in league history to forfeit a game. Las Vegas missed the playoffs, finishing one game behind the Dallas Wings.“I definitely think having charters is a trickle-down effect to people being able to take care of their bodies better and rest,” Aces guard Sydney Colson said. “And then you have better games to watch because people are rested and injury free.”Connecticut’s Jonquel Jones said though she loved the Sun’s fans, it can be challenging running into them at the airport after games when players might not feel like talking.Joe Buglewicz for The New York TimesFor those players who played college basketball for major programs in the United States, the special finals travel is a welcome return to the norm, as many of their schools provided charter flights to all games.“There aren’t many times that I can remember at all that we flew commercial,” said Aces forward Theresa Plaisance, who played at Louisiana State University. “And when you get to the W.N.B.A., and you’re going to your middle seat on Southwest — sometimes it’s really hard to swallow that pill and think like: ‘Oh, this is my progression. I went from college to make it to a professional league, and I have to go backward.’”For Peter Feeney, the basketball operations manager for the Sun, who has handled all flight logistics for the past four years, the simplicity of the travel blew his mind, he said. Feeney typically arrives at airports an hour before the team to ensure that they can pass through security without any hiccups. But on their two charter flights, they’ve arrived at the plane less than an hour before takeoff, and the flight staff handled almost everything.The moment made Feeney realize that if the league switched to charter flights for the entire season, he would become less useful in his role. But he also serves as a video coordinator, so he welcomes the idea. “That’s a good problem, right?” he said with a laugh.Aces forward A’ja Wilson, who has been outspoken about the W.N.B.A.’s travel woes, said that the players had talked about what life would be like if chartered flights were normal after they comfortably made the cross-country trip to Connecticut from Las Vegas for Game 3 on Thursday.“We need it. Ain’t nothing else,” Wilson said. “We need to be able to fly like that after every game. I can only imagine how my body would feel if we did. So, I think it’s a huge deal for us to do it. We need to continue to push it.” More

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      NBA Under Pressure to Remove Phoenix Suns Owner Robert Sarver

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      A sponsor, team owner and players are calling for a harsher penalty for Robert Sarver, the Phoenix Suns owner, after an investigation found he mistreated employees for years.Minutes before the N.B.A. announced the results of an independent investigation into Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, on Tuesday, a call took place between N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver and Tamika Tremaglio, the executive director of the players’ union.Silver told Tremaglio the report was coming and that, based on its findings, he’d given Sarver a $10 million fine and one-year suspension.It was one of many conversations they have had this week. Once Tremaglio had read the 43-page public report that said Sarver had used racial slurs and treated women unfairly, she met with players on the union’s executive committee. Then, she told Silver that a one-year suspension would not do. Sarver, she told him, should never return to the Suns.“We do have to step up; I have to protect our players,” Tremaglio said in an interview Friday. “In my mind, this is not protecting our players. We are putting them in a situation that we already know is toxic if we were to permit that.”She said Silver had said he understood.“I think he also was torn with regards to what needed to be done,” Tremaglio said.Tremaglio and N.B.A. players aren’t alone in wanting Sarver out of the N.B.A. for good. A prominent sponsor and a Suns minority owner also have called for Sarver to no longer be involved with the team, part of mounting pressure for a dissolution of the relationship between Sarver and the N.B.A. Sarver also owns the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury.“I cannot in good judgment sit back and allow our children and future generations of fans to think that this behavior is tolerated because of wealth and privilege,” Jahm Najafi, a Suns vice chairman and minority owner, said in an open letter to employees and fans Thursday calling for Sarver to resign.PayPal, which has a logo patch on the Suns jerseys, said Friday it would not renew its sponsorship after the 2022-23 season if Sarver were involved with the team after his suspension.Dan Schulman, PayPal’s president and chief executive, said in a statement that Sarver’s conduct was “unacceptable and in conflict with our values.”What to Know: Robert Sarver Misconduct CaseCard 1 of 6A suspension and a fine. More

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      NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Defends 1-Year Suspension for Owner’s Misconduct

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      Adam Silver, the league’s commissioner, said the suspension and $10 million fine were fair, considering the “totality” of the career of Robert Sarver, who owns Phoenix’s N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. teams.N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday defended the one-year suspension and $10 million fine assessed to Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, who was found after an independent investigation to have mistreated employees over more than a decade.Despite calls for harsher penalties, Silver said the suspension and fine were fair punishments for Sarver’s misconduct, which included using racial slurs, yelling at employees and treating female employees unfairly, according to the report. Silver said he had not talked to Sarver about his voluntarily selling his team because of his behavior, nor had the league’s board of governors discussed terminating Sarver’s ownership.“From a personal standpoint, I was in disbelief to a certain extent about what I learned that had transpired over the last 18 years in the Suns organization,” Silver said. “I was saddened by it, disheartened. I want to again apologize to the former, and in some cases current, employees of the Phoenix Suns for what they had to experience. There is absolutely no excuse for it. And we addressed it.”Sarver is also the majority owner of the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury.Silver spoke to reporters one day after the league released a 43-page report from the New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz that detailed Sarver’s repeated use of racial slurs, mistreatment of employees, bullying and unfair treatment of female employees over nearly two decades as the owner of the Suns and the Mercury. Silver said the investigative group was diverse in race and gender, but he was unsure of the demographic breakdown. The law firm reviewed thousands of pages of documents and interviewed hundreds of current and former employees.Chris Paul, the Suns’ All-Star point guard, said in a post on Twitter late Wednesday that he was “horrified and disappointed” by the actions outlined in the report.“This conduct especially towards women is unacceptable and must never be repeated,” he said. “I am of the view that the sanctions fell short in truly addressing what we can all agree was atrocious behavior. My heart goes out to all of the people that were affected.”Silver used the firm’s findings to determine what punishment Sarver deserved. He meted out the maximum fine allowable by the league’s constitution, but not the longest suspension.“I had the option to go longer,” Silver said. “I landed on one year. I will say it’s the second-longest suspension in the history of our league, just to put it in some sort of context.”Robert Sarver, center, the majority owner of the Suns and the Mercury, was found to have used racial slurs and treated women unfairly over several years.Ralph Freso/Associated PressThe harshest penalty the league has ever levied on a team owner came in 2014 when Donald Sterling, then the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was barred for life after he made racist remarks about Black people in a private conversation and a recording of his comments was made public.At the time, Silver said the punishment was based solely on that one incident, and that he would recommend that the board of governors vote to terminate Sterling’s ownership. Ultimately, though, Rochelle Sterling sold the team, despite her husband’s efforts to prevent her from doing so.Asked why he did not go as far with Sarver, Silver called Donald Sterling’s and Sarver’s situations “dramatically different.”“What we saw in the case of Donald Sterling was blatant racist conduct directed at a select group of people,” Silver said.When it came to Sarver, Silver said, the “totality of circumstances over an 18-year period in which he’s owned these teams” didn’t warrant the same punishment.Later Wednesday, LeBron James wrote on Twitter, “I gotta be honest … Our league definitely got this wrong.”James, who stars for the Los Angeles Lakers, continued: “I love this league and I deeply respect our leadership. But this isn’t right. There is no place for misogyny, sexism, and racism in any work place. Don’t matter if you own the team or play for the team. We hold our league up as an example of our values and this aint it.”Silver said he had heard from players in the last 24 hours but would allow them to speak for themselves.“It’s beyond the pale in every possible way to use language and behave that way,” Silver said of Sarver’s behavior. But he added: “Remember, while there were these terrible things, there were also many, many people who had very positive things to say about him through this process.”Despite detailing several instances in which Sarver made women and Black people feel demeaned, the investigators said they did not find that Sarver’s actions were motivated by “racial or gender-based animus.”Silver paused when asked if he agreed with that assessment.“I accept their work,” Silver said. “To follow what we believe is appropriate process here, to bring in a law firm, to have them spend essentially nine months on this, to do the extensive kinds of interviews they can, I’m not able to put myself in their shoes. I respect the work they’ve done, we’ve done.”The public report did not explain how the investigators determined that Sarver’s actions were not motivated by racial or gender-based animus, but Silver said that the report represented only part of the findings. He said he was given more information, but to protect the privacy of those who had participated in the investigation he could not reveal more.“Let me reiterate: The conduct is indefensible,” Silver said. “But I feel we dealt with it in a fair manner, both taking into account the totality of the circumstances, not just those particular allegations but the 18 years in which Mr. Sarver has owned the Suns and the Mercury.”Silver was speaking after a meeting of the league’s board of governors in Manhattan. The board typically meets three times a year, including once before the start of the regular season. This week’s meeting lasted three days and included discussion about the investigation.When asked about the discrepancy between how Sarver is being treated, in being allowed to remain an N.B.A. owner, and how employees of most companies would be treated had they behaved similarly, Silver pointed to a different standard for team owners.“There’s no neat answer here, other than owning property, the rights that come with owning an N.B.A. team, how that’s set up within our constitution, what it would take to remove that team from his control is a very involved process, and it’s different than holding a job,” Silver said. “It just is, when you actually own a team. It’s just a very different proposition.”When asked what standards he would expect league owners to meet, Silver said each case must be considered individually.Silver made references to Sarver’s misconduct having been part of his past, and spoke of the positive changes he felt had been made in the Suns organization. But many of the incidents confirmed by investigators happened recently. For example, the report found an incident of Sarver making inappropriate sexual remarks in 2021, and one of the instances in which investigators confirmed that Sarver had used a racial slur occurred in 2016.Although the investigation has closed, Silver said this will not be the end of the league’s concern about Sarver’s actions.“In terms of future behavior, he’s on notice,” Silver said. “He knows that.” More

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      The NBA’s Investigation of Robert Sarver Reveals More Abusive Behavior in Sports

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      An investigation’s finding that Robert Sarver used racist and sexist language as owner of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury is another exhausting entry to the list of sports figures using their power abusively.I don’t want to write this column, and you don’t want to read it.Sports fans are tired of the whole subject matter: the people in sports who give the games we love a terrible name.I’m talking about the entitled bullies. The misogynists and miscreants. The racists and those who walk the line between being utterly ignorant and outright hate.I’m talking about the players and team owners who wield their power like a cudgel and act as though they can do anything they want to anyone they want.But here I am again, this time addressing Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns of the N.B.A. and the Phoenix Mercury of the W.N.B.A., whom the N.B.A. suspended for a year and fined $10 million after it found that he mistreated employees over his 18-year tenure. According to the N.B.A., that abuse of staff included Sarver’s repeated use of a racist slur for Black people, making sex-related comments in the workplace and inequitable treatment of women.The league’s report did not conclude “that Mr. Sarver’s workplace misconduct was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.”In a statement Tuesday, Sarver said that while he disagreed “with some of the particulars” of the N.B.A.’s report, he apologized for his words and actions.It feels like a constant drumbeat. This week, I’m writing about a guy — and yes, it’s almost always a guy — whose actions are just the latest blight on sports, one of the essential parts of our cultural life.Sarver is not well known to the run-of-the-mill fan, but the teams he owns and oversees are. The Suns and Mercury are longtime pillars in their leagues. The Suns nearly won the N.B.A. championship in the 2020-21 season and were among the league’s best last season. The Mercury have won three W.N.B.A. titles — and have drawn the world’s attention because Brittney Griner, their star center, is imprisoned in Russia and at the center of a geopolitical storm.Over the last year, Sarver and his teams have been under a microscope. While the Suns and Mercury were trying to win championships, lawyers hired by the N.B.A. began peering into the behavior of the 60-year-old owner after ESPN reported his misdeeds and the toxic work environment he spawned.The type of behavior investigators reported is so familiar, having happened in so many other instances, that it won’t take long to guess what they entailed. Misogyny? Check. Bullying and browbeating employees? Check.What to Know:Robert Sarver Misconduct CaseCard 1 of 6A suspension and a fine. More

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      NBA Fines and Suspends Phoenix Suns Owner Robert Sarver

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      An investigation found that the owner, Robert Sarver, had used racial slurs and treated female employees inequitably. The N.B.A. fined Sarver $10 million.The N.B.A. is suspending Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, for one year and fining him $10 million after an investigation determined that he had engaged in misconduct, including using racial slurs, yelling at employees and treating female employees unfairly.“The statements and conduct described in the findings of the independent investigation are troubling and disappointing,” Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said in a statement.He added: “Regardless of position, power or intent, we all need to recognize the corrosive and hurtful impact of racially insensitive and demeaning language and behavior. On behalf of the entire N.B.A. I apologize to all of those impacted by the misconduct outlined in the investigators’ report. We must do better.”Sarver said in a statement that he accepted the consequences of the N.B.A.’s decision.“While I disagree with some of the particulars of the N.B.A.’s report, I would like to apologize for my words and actions that offended our employees,” he said. “I take full responsibility for what I have done. I am sorry for causing this pain, and these errors in judgment are not consistent with my personal philosophy or my values.”Sarver also owns the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury.N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said the findings of the investigation into Robert Sarver’s conduct were “troubling and disappointing.”Jeff Chiu/Associated PressThe N.B.A. began the investigation in response to a November 2021 article by ESPN about accusations of mistreatment against Sarver. After the article’s publication, the league retained the New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct an independent investigation.On Tuesday, the firm and the N.B.A. released a 43-page report that found that Sarver “had engaged in conduct that clearly violated common workplace standards,” which included inappropriate comments about female employees’ appearance and bullying. He also engaged in inappropriate physical conduct toward male employees on four occasions, according to the report.More than 100 individuals who were interviewed by investigators said they witnessed behavior that “violated applicable standards.” There was a general sense among employees that Sarver felt that workplace rules did not apply to him, according to the report.Sarver also made crude jokes, cursed at employees and told a pregnant employee that she “would be unable to do her job upon becoming a mother,” according to the report. Witnesses recalled Sarver saying that the employee would be busy “breastfeeding” and that a “baby needs their mom, not their father.” The employee cried in response to Sarver’s comments, according to the report. Sarver later asked why women “cry so much.”Sarver also “repeated the N-word when recounting the statements of others,” according to the report. Sarver was in the presence of players, coaches and members of the front office when he used the word during a team-building exercise during the 2012-13 season.What to Know:Robert Sarver Misconduct CaseCard 1 of 6A suspension and a fine. More

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      Dawn Staley Is Still Coaching A’ja Wilson

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      Staley and Wilson won a college championship at South Carolina. Now the coach is a “second mother” who harps on Wilson’s game as she stars for the Las Vegas Aces in the W.N.B.A.LAS VEGAS — The day still haunts A’ja Wilson.She was competing with her University of South Carolina women’s basketball teammates in an intrasquad scrimmage, but Coach Dawn Staley didn’t think Wilson was playing with enough effort. Staley stopped the practice, told Wilson to stand on the sideline and replaced her.As the scrimmage continued, Staley told Wilson that she was “blending in” — looking merely average on the court. Wilson’s team began losing and she begged the Gamecocks’ other coaches to talk Staley into putting her back on the court, but Staley never did. Wilson and her losing team had to run the length of the court multiple times after practice, with Wilson cursing and muttering in frustration the entire way.“She looked like everybody else,” Staley said. “And A’ja Wilson? Like, come on now. I don’t care if we are in college. That’s not what we’re going to do. That’s not what I’m going to be a part of. I ain’t one of your friends that’s just going to let you fail and let you exist.”Wilson shunned Staley for the next two days, not saying a word to her at practice or in meetings. Eventually, they made peace with some help from Wilson’s mother, whom Staley called for help during their brief silence. But even while Wilson was upset, she knew that Staley was right.“She showed me that I can never be average,” Wilson said. “I can never blend. I should always stick out whenever someone’s watching a basketball game.”That moment became a turning point for Wilson, who is now one of the best players in the W.N.B.A. at only 26 years old. She is in the W.N.B.A. finals with the Las Vegas Aces, who drafted her No. 1 overall in 2018. She has won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award twice, including this season, when she was also named the defensive player of the year. She has yet to win a championship, but the Aces were leading the Connecticut Sun, 1-0, in the best-of-five finals series heading into Game 2 on Tuesday.Staley has been in her ear the whole time.Wilson, left, became the best women’s basketball player in South Carolina history under Staley, right. They won a national championship together in 2017.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressWhat began as a coach recruiting a top high school player has blossomed into Wilson claiming Staley as her “second mother” and Staley accepting that role with her version of tough love, which includes providing equal amounts of affection and rebuke.“We have lots of laughs,” Staley said. “I’ve wiped tears. I’ve hugged on her. I’ve loved up on her. I’ve criticized her. We are just authentic, and it just organically happened.”Wilson thinks about being pulled from that college scrimmage almost every day, she said. “Never blend” has become somewhat of a motto for her, and it was top of mind after a disappointing performance in the Aces’ loss in Game 1 of the semifinals against the Seattle Storm.Wilson scored just 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting and was outplayed by the star Seattle forward Breanna Stewart, who scored 24 points.“There’s no reason people should be like, ‘Oh, A’ja played today?’ I should be making myself known,” Wilson said.She responded by averaging 30 points and 12.3 rebounds over the next three games of the series to help the Aces advance to the finals.Wilson played all but 4 minutes 6 seconds of the 165 possible minutes during that series, a stat that, along with her response to Game 1, showed Staley how much Wilson had evolved since her time at South Carolina.“She could have never done that in college,” Staley said while laughing. “I mean, she could’ve but wouldn’t have been as effective or great.”Wilson is the best player in South Carolina women’s basketball history. She was the national player of the year as a senior, finishing first in points, blocked shots and free throws made in a career at South Carolina. In 2021, the college erected a statue of her outside of the basketball gym.She seamlessly transitioned to the W.N.B.A., averaging 20.7 points per game in her first season, when she was unanimously selected for the Rookie of the Year Award.But there are still times when Staley has to remind Wilson that she is blending in, most recently during halftime of Game 1 of the finals Sunday. On paper, Wilson wasn’t having a bad game; she scored 12 points in the first quarter, and despite a difficult second period, the Aces were losing by just 4 points. But when she got to the locker room, Wilson checked her phone and saw a message from Staley: “One rebound, seriously?”Wilson had two rebounds, but she knew Staley’s underlying point was right. “So I had to go out there and get me more,” Wilson said while laughing. “Seriously because I’m like, ‘No, she’s not going to disrespect me like that.’” (Wilson finished with 11 rebounds and the win.)Texts like those are normal from Staley, who has been Wilson’s biggest critic since her South Carolina days but says she’s also Wilson’s biggest “hype man.” Staley talks to Wilson at least once a week about basketball and strategy ahead of matchups.“I tell her when she sucks, but I also tell her ‘ain’t nobody can stop you,’” Staley said. “She’s too agile. She’s too quick. She’s too strong. She can score baskets; her midrange is wet.” She added while laughing: “Her 3-ball is, you know, under construction, but it’s solid. There’s no reason she shouldn’t average a double-double.”Wilson and Staley’s bond started when Wilson was a senior at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, S.C., just a few miles south of the University of South Carolina campus. Staley had been recruiting Wilson, then the No. 1 high school player in the country, and she used to call Wilson weekly — so much so that she had scheduled separate weekly calls with Wilson and another with her mother, Eva. So when Wilson arrived as a freshman at South Carolina, she and Staley already had a bond beyond basketball that intensified as they argued, lost big games and won South Carolina women’s basketball’s first national championship together.Wilson and Staley reunited as (official) player and coach with the U.S. women’s national team during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“I can talk to her without being politically correct,” Wilson said. “I can be me. Like, I can just be myself, and she’s helped me out a ton.”Their relationship often spills onto social media, like when the two were on Instagram live last year, and Staley needled Wilson about her rebounding. “I’m just glad you rebounding the ball. You can’t even get to a double-double!” Staley said to Wilson and nearly 700 viewers. “I mean, you’re averaging like nine. How can you be short of a double-double with like nine rebounds? Who does that? Even that thing out!”Or after the Aces defeated the Storm in the semifinals, and Staley told Wilson on Twitter that they would be going to a popular shopping mall in Las Vegas, seemingly implying that it would be her treat. But she apparently meant it would be Wilson’s.“I love hard, and I show tough love,” Staley said. “I try to create a balance so that players like A’ja can get an understanding of how to go from good to great. If you want to be great, and you tell me that, I’m going to hold you up to that as best I can — and she knows that.” More

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      Aces Score Just Enough to Take W.N.B.A. Finals Lead

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      The Las Vegas Aces’ high-powered offense scored a season-low 67 points, but a double-double from A’ja Wilson, the league’s most valuable player, helped them outlast the Connecticut Sun.LAS VEGAS — The W.N.B.A. finals have many compelling story lines: two franchises, and two coaches, looking for their first title; a high-powered offense taking on a stingy defense.But those story lines faded into the background Sunday afternoon, and it quickly became A’ja Wilson’s day as she led the Las Vegas Aces to a 67-64 victory over the Connecticut Sun in Game 1.Before the game, Wilson received this year’s Most Valuable Player Award at halfcourt with her family and the league’s commissioner by her side. The M.V.P. honor was the second of her career, making her the seventh player in the W.N.B.A.’s 26 seasons to win the award more than once. As the public-address announcer called out the Aces starters’ names, Wilson ran out, high-fiving teammates amid the loudest roars for any player.Then, when the game began, she got to the basket with ease, missing only one shot on the way to 12 first-quarter points. The Aces ended the first quarter leading by 8 points, then were buoyed throughout the game by Wilson’s dominant play. She met the moment with 24 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 steals. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for Tuesday in Las Vegas.“She can score the ball, ultimately,” Sun center Jonquel Jones said of Wilson, with a laugh. “She’s able to score on different levels. I think that’s a tough challenge. She’s attacking the rim really aggressively right now. So it’s tough.” Aces guard Chelsea Gray added 21 points, and Alyssa Thomas led the Sun with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. Las Vegas’s win came on one of its worst offensive nights of the year, with the team’s lowest point total of both the regular season and playoffs. And Aces guard Kelsey Plum, who averaged 20.2 points per game in the regular season, struggled with just 6 points on 1-of-9 shooting.“Credit to their defense, and give credit to us for missing,” Aces Coach Becky Hammon said with a smile.Despite the loss, Coach Curt Miller and the Sun players did not seem dejected afterward, as some teams would be after losing a W.N.B.A. finals game. Miller said he was “really pleased” with how the Sun dictated the style of play to one that they were more comfortable with, forcing the league’s highest-scoring offense to struggle to find baskets. The Sun lost by a close margin despite shooting only five free throws to the Aces’ 19. “Ultimately, I’m happy with the game that we played,” Jones said, “and we gave ourselves a good opportunity to come out there and get a win. And it just didn’t go our way, but we’re excited about Game 2.” But the Aces were looking at the game from a similar perspective. They held the Sun to their lowest scoring total of the playoffs and, even while playing arguably their worst offensive game of the season, they still won. “We do take a lot of pride in getting it done on the defensive side because that’s the most important side,” Wilson said. “They can hold us to however many; we have to also hold them down as well. So if we can play on both sides of the basketball and execute on the defensive end, I got us all the way.”Two years ago, Wilson won her first M.V.P. Award, leading the Aces to their first finals appearance since moving to Las Vegas in 2018 and the franchise’s second overall. But Wilson and the Aces quickly looked like a team unprepared for the moment, as the Seattle Storm beat them by double digits in each game, including a 33-point drubbing in Game 3 to win the 2020 title. Wilson said that they were “happy to be there” in 2020 but that now they were less overwhelmed by the aura of the finals and more focused on the basketball. The Aces’ defense limited the Sun’s Courtney Williams and DeWanna Bonner, not pictured, holding them to a combined 8 points on 3-of-18 shooting.L.E. Baskow/Associated Press“We know that feeling,” Wilson said. “It sucks getting swept. It’s the worst thing ever, but that’s the chip on your shoulder. That’s the fire. That’s the grind that you want to say, ‘I don’t want to get swept anymore. I don’t even want to have a gentleman sweep.’ You want to go out there and play for your teammates because you felt the way that you felt in 2020, and you hate it.”On Sunday, the Aces showed their evolution in the two years since that finals appearance. After the Aces’ strong first quarter, the Sun responded by slowing the game down and using their physicality and height to make scoring arduous. The Sun outscored Las Vegas in the second quarter, 21-9, to take a 4-point lead into halftime.Hammon was furious in the locker room at halftime, more “lit” than she had ever been this season, she said, because “everything we talked about, we didn’t do any of it.” “I don’t even yell in my real life,” Hammon said, adding: “But when you go out there, and you don’t execute, it’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, they know it, OK. They’re smart, they get it. But they beat us in every hustle category. And that can’t happen. You can’t lose a championship or a game or quarter on hustle — that can never be the case.”Gray and Wilson began shaking their heads and laughing before they were even finished being asked to share what Hammon had said to the team. “We cannot. It is unedited. We got children watching,” Gray said with a smile, as Wilson laughed next to her, nearly uncontrollably shaking her head. “But she was just on us to play our style defensively. We were letting them get offensive rebounds, easy scores, turning over the ball,” Gray added. “That’s the edited version. I can’t give you everything.” But the Aces had been in that position before during these playoffs. In their semifinal series win against the Seattle Storm, nearly every game featured dramatic lead changes and comebacks. Hammon said the Aces’ ability to “take a punch” in that series was significant.And it showed Sunday as the Aces reclaimed the lead in the second half and held on, despite a furious rally from Connecticut down the stretch. The Aces found a way to beat the Sun at their own style of basketball to move closer to their first title.“Tonight we struggled a little bit, and we’ll be better Game 2,” Hammon said. “I already know what we’re going to do. My mind is reeling.” More