A recent lawsuit against the Suns by the team’s former director of security included a claim that the team’s CEO and a former Phoenix Mercury player were having an affair.
The Suns denied the claim in a statement Tuesday. The NBA and WNBA teams share ownership.
“The recent reports concerning Josh Bartelstein and Sophie Cunningham are entirely false and morally reprehensible,” Suns spokesperson Stacey Mitch told Front Office Sports. “Let’s be absolutely clear about the origin of these claims.”
The claims in question, which are not the focus of the lawsuit, relate to a rumored affair between Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein and ex-Mercury player Sophie Cunningham, who was traded to the Indiana Fever in February.
Cunningham, who has not appeared in a game yet this season as she deals with an ankle injury, responded on social media Wednesday afternoon. “I am deeply saddened by the recent false allegations made against me by Gene Traylor, someone I do not know and have never met,” she wrote on Instagram. “Let me be clear, his statements are untrue and extremely hurtful.
“I am here to compete, play basketball at the highest level and win for my team and my fans, while inspiring other women that they can do or be anything they ever dream of becoming,” she added. “I hold myself to the highest integrity and my values are what guide me on and off the court.”
The lawsuit from Traylor—the team’s former director of safety, security and risk management—centers around Traylor’s claims that the franchise ignored urgent security concerns. It includes an allegation that Cornelius Craig, vice president of security and risk management for the Suns, was hired to get rid of him. The suit claims that Craig was behaving erratically, and to illustrate that point, explains that Craig was telling people about the alleged relationship between Bartelstein and Cunningham.
According to the suit, during a meeting with Bartelstein last October, Traylor told the CEO that Craig had been telling others “Josh Bartelstein is fucking Sophie Cunningham.”
The rumor was widely circulated on social media over the weekend.
Representatives for Cunningham did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The guard was traded to the Fever in the offseason and her new team did not respond to a request for comment.
Mitch reiterated what she said last week about the attorney behind the recent suits, Sheree D. Wright. She is among the lawyers representing plaintiffs in four total suits that have been filed against the Suns since November, all of which allege that workplace issues have persisted under new owner Mat Ishbia; the Suns say she “sees an opportunity because of the reports about previous ownership.”
Ishbia bought the Suns and Mercury from embattled ex-owner Robert Sarver in December 2022 for a then-record $4 billion. Sarver sold the Suns following a one-year suspension and $10 million fine he received after an investigation conducted by law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, which found he “engaged in conduct that clearly violated common workplace standards,” including racist and misogynist behavior.
“[Wright] continues to insert salacious lies and fabrications into her complaints—knowing that the media may report them as fact, as happened yesterday—she hopes to coerce the Phoenix Suns into settling,” Mitch said. “Sheree Wright will not extort our organization and never see a single dollar.”
“We will pursue all available legal avenues and hold those accountable for participating in the spread of misleading and false narratives,” the statement said.
Wright pushed back on the notion that she—and other attorneys representing clients in lawsuits against the Suns—are aiming to settle.
“If our goal were to pressure the Suns into settling, we would have taken the opportunity to mediate and pause the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and Attorney General’s investigations long ago,” Wright told Front Office Sports. “I’m not interested in litigating this in the media. I will respond in court—where evidence, not headlines, decides the outcome.”
Cunningham is entering her seventh season in the WNBA and her first with the Fever. For her career, she’s averaged a little under 8 points and 3 rebounds per game. She’s a career 36% three-point shooter.
This story has been updated with Cunningham’s comments.
