Suns owner Robert Sarver let Ryan McDonough run Phoenix’s entire offseason then fired the general manager just nine days before the regular season.
Who does that?
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:Sarver has earned a long-standing reputation for aggressively involving himself in basketball decisions, but it’s become harder for coaches and front-office staff to manage in the past two years after the Suns became Sarver’s primary business interest.
Suns coaches became accustomed to regular beratings and demands of strategy and lineup changes, league sources said. Rival executives could sometimes hear Sarver yelling in the background on negotiation calls with the Suns’ front office. Agents tell stories of private conversations involving Sarver without the front office’s knowledge.
The Suns are in disarray, and everyone is trying to blame someone else. Sarver had the power to blame McDonough and his staff by firing them. They and their friends around the league can get back at Sarver by leaking embarrassing stories about him.
Not that Sarver is a sympathetic figure. He’s not.
But even by the low standard set for him, yelling in the background of negotiation calls is wild.