[10] A lifelong sports fan, Sarver's quest to purchase an NBA team began with a conversation with University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson.

[12] In 2021, Sarver and the Suns oversaw a $230 million renovation and expansion of Footprint Center, formerly known as Talking Stick Resort Arena.

[13] The renovations include ultra-modern amenities, premium seating options, themed bars, new suites, and additional social spaces.

On top of the physical changes to the arena, there has been an overhaul to the game presentation including enhancements to sound, lighting and video systems.

Though overlooked as potential championship contenders at the start of the season after a previous decade of missing the playoffs, the Suns, built by Sarver, general manager James Jones, and coach Monty Williams, have quickly developed into one of the strongest organizations in the NBA.

[17]  Of the original eight franchises created at the founding of the WNBA for the inaugural 1997 season, the Phoenix Mercury are one of only three remaining in the 12-team league (along with the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks).

[18] Of the twelve WNBA teams, only five share the same majority owner as their NBA counterpart (Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, and Washington Mystics).

[20][21] In January 2016, Sarver bought football team RCD Mallorca, at the time in the Spanish second division, for €20 million.

He has been accused in one account "of being of an interventionist owner with more authority than expertise, a front office marred by instability, an understaffed scouting department, and a dated facility that isolates the decision-makers from the players and coaches".

Sarver and his legal team denied the vast majority of accusations, citing that there are only a handful of sources on the record and, while the reporter may have reached out to 70 employees, the article provided no evidence that all of them spoke negatively of the organization.

[28][29][30] On September 13, 2022, the NBA fined Sarver the maximum $10 million and suspended him for one year in both the NBA and the WNBA after an independent investigation determined that he said "nigger" at least five times in public – four of those being told by subordinates afterward that he should not use the word – as well as conduct that included "unequal treatment of female employees; sex-related statements and conduct; and harsh treatment of employees that on occasion constituted bullying.

[38] In response to a 2010 Arizona Senate bill called the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act", colloquially known as SB-1070, which would make it a state misdemeanor crime for an undocumented person to be in Arizona and obligate police to make an attempt when practicable during a stop, detention or arrest to determine a person's immigration status, the Phoenix Suns adopted special "Los Suns" jerseys on Cinco De Mayo.

[44] In 1996, Sarver married Penny Sanders,[7] a Kansas City, Missouri native; they live in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and have three sons named Max, Jake, and Zach.