Sophie Cunningham has joined the Phoenix Suns in denouncing a claim in a lawsuit that CEO Josh Bartelstein had an affair with the former Mercury player.
The Suns issued their denial in a statement from communications executive Stacey Mitch on Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed by former Suns security director Gene Traylor.
“The recent reports concerning Josh Bartelstein and Sophie Cunningham are entirely false and morally reprehensible,” the statement reads. “Let’s absolutely be clear about the origins of these claims.”
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On Wednesday, Cunningham issued a separate statement on social media denouncing the “untrue and extremely hurtful” statements made by someone “I do not know and have never met.”
“I am deeply saddened by the recent false accusations made against me by Gene Traylor, someone I do not know and have never met,” Cunningham’s statement reads. “Let me be clear his statements are untrue and extremely hurtful. …
“I will not let untrue gossip take my focus away from what is most important to me which is basketball, my supportive team and my fans.”
Traylor, a current employee of the Suns, sued the team last week, alleging discrimination, harassment and retaliation. ESPN first reported the lawsuit. The claim of an affair between Bartelstein and Cunningham is mentioned in passing but is not the focus of the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Traylor claims that the Suns demoted him from his role as director of safety, security and risk management after he gave a presentation to management highlighting repeated alleged security lapses around the Suns and Mercury. Per the lawsuit, those lapses included failing security tests in which plainclothes law enforcement officers were able to enter the teams’ PHX Arena with guns and knives.
A day after the Suns denounced the claim, Sophie Cunningham has issued a denial of her own. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Christian Petersen via Getty Images)
What the lawsuit claims about Bartelstein, Cunningham
Per Front Office Sports, the lawsuit claims that the Suns hired vice president of security and risk management Cornelius Craig to get rid of Traylor.
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The lawsuit accuses Craig of erratic behavior and cites a meeting between Traylor and Bartelstein in which Traylor allegedly told Bartelstein that Craig had been telling others that “Josh Bartelstein is f***ing Sophie Cunningham.”
That statement is the source of public claims that Bartelstein and Cunningham had an affair.
Cunningham played six seasons with the Mercury from 2019 to 2024. The Mercury traded Cunningham in the offseason to the Indiana Fever. Bartelstein is married and was Cunningham’s professional superior as the CEO of both the Suns and Mercury.
Bartelstein hasn’t personally addressed the claim in public since it was published last week.
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Tuesday’s statement from the Suns follows up previous statements attacking the lawsuit and attorney Sheree Wright. Wright is an attorney for the plaintiffs in four lawsuits that have been filed against the Suns since November by current and former employees.
The Suns have repeatedly accused Wright of “trying to extort” the franchise and called the allegations in the suit filed by Traylor “delusional” in a previous statement from Mitch.
“Ms. Wright and her client have made absurd accusations of misconduct surrounding the security department of the Phoenix Suns,” Mitch’s statement reads. “These allegations are delusional and categorically false.”
Wright issued a statement to Front Office Sports in response to Mitch’s statements.
“I’m not interested in litigating this in the media,” her statement reads. “I will respond in court — where evidence, not headlines, decides the outcome.”
Tuesday’s statement from Mitch accuses Wright of continuing to “insert salacious lies and fabrications into her complaints.”
