Robert Sarver received a one-year suspension for the Suns’ abusive workplace culture. Now his top lieutenant is resigning.
In the wake of Sarver’s suspension and subsequent sale of the Phoenix Suns, ESPN reported that “certain Suns executives yelled at and subjected their colleagues to embarrassment, humiliation, and intimidation in the workplace, including conduct that constitutes ‘bullying’ under the Suns Workplace Policy.”
According to the terms of the NBA’s punishment letter to the Suns, the team was forbidden to fire executives like CEO Jason Rowley without written consent from Sarver. Rowley worked for the Suns since 2007 and was team president since 2012.
Suns employees alleged that Rowley regularly screamed and cursed at employees, fired a woman for going on maternity leave, and ignored repeated instances of sexual misconduct from underlings. Rowley also allegedly refused to wear his credentials or even a special “orange badge” created for Rowley. When stopped by security, he allegedly regularly lit into employees and threatened to fire them.
A month ago, Rowley said ESPN “misrepresented him” and that he wouldn’t resign from his job.
Despite Rowley’s protests, his days were numbered with new owner Mat Ishbia set to take over on Wednesday. Ishbia may have wanted his own people in place anyway, but Rowley’s history of misconduct probably guaranteed his exit. Rowley’s resignation is likely to avoid being fired this week.
He’s likely not the only executive who will depart the Suns organization soon. The culture of bullying and harassment was pervasive, and it’s likely only the uncertainty of the sale that’s kept top executives in place since news of the organizational dysfunction first broke in November 2021.
In other words, Chris Paul may not be the only organizational mainstay leaving Phoenix this week.
