thelesterlee
A few days ago, I wrote about a former Phoenix Suns employee, Gene Traylor, filing a lawsuit against the team—citing allegations of discrimination and harassment.
Traylor was the head of security and claims to have been demoted when he, well, went to his boss with several security claims—including Phoenix Mercury star, Britney Griner, being followed and harassed.
But I must’ve skipped over the part of the story where Gene Traylor revealed former Mercury guard, Sophie Cunningham, was sleeping with her boss, Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein.
The lawsuit from Gene 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.” (Source)
It sucks that Sophie Cunningham is the focal point of a random Suns employee’s greivenances with his supervisor—especially considering she was traded this offseason to the Indiana Fever.
From everything I saw of the Fever this preseason, Cunningham looked happy as hell with Caitlin Clark and their new revitalized roster.
Unfortunately, Sophie had to make a statement denying these relationship allegations:
— Sophie Cunningham (@sophaller) May 21, 2025
I have no idea if Sophie Cunningham slept with Josh Bartelstein or not (although waiting a few days to deny it with a statement someone else wrote for you doesn’t scream innocence to me) but I do know how weirdo dudes move and I 1000% believe Gene Traylor when he says his boss was randomly telling people around the team facility about this player sleeping with the CEO.
Even if it were true, Josh Bartelstein is married. That would be extremely sensitive information to casually run around the office telling people and citing this incident does a great job illustrating just how terribly run these Phoenix teams are.
Mat Ishbia—a career crook who is still actively committing fraud and tricking homeowners with his sketchy mortgage business—shockingly, has hired a guy like Josh Bartelstein—who is willing to sleep with an employee and this loser Cornelius Craig—who is either lying because he saw Sophie and Josh together once and his little brain instantly assumed they were humping or he has the discretion of a toddler—but regardless, these Phoenix teams have no chance of winning any championships until the scammers and creeps are gone.
Thankfully, Sophie Cunningham is now comfortably playing for Fever fans who have her back against any (black) person against her.
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