Suns CEO accused of having affair with former Phoenix Mercury player.
Phoenix Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein is at the center of a bombshell allegation included in a federal lawsuit filed against the team.
The lawsuit was filed by Gene Traylor, who had previously served as the Suns’ director of safety, security, and risk management before he was later demoted. In the suit, Traylor, a black man, claimed that he was subjected to “racial discrimination and retaliatory demotion.”
One of the more shocking claims Traylor made in the suit involved an accusation that Bartelstein had a relationship with former Phoenix Mercury player Sophie Cunningham. In court documents acquired by Front Office Sports, Traylor recounted an October 2024 conversation with Bartelstein.Traylor allegedly warned Bartelstein about a team executive named Cornelius Craig, whom Traylor believed to be “spreading damaging information” that “could jeopardize the organization.
Paragraph 35 of the suit indicates what Craig allegedly said about Bartelstein (profanity edited by LBS).
“When Bartelstein asked Plaintiff (Traylor) to reveal what Craig was saying, Plaintiff explained that Craig had been telling others, ‘Josh Bartelstein is f—ing Sophie Cunningham,’” the court document stated.
Cunningham spent her first six WNBA seasons with the Mercury, the sister team of the Suns. She was traded to the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
