Suns interim Gov. Sam Garvin issued a statement to the latest ESPN report around the team's culture, saying they have "made and continue to make substantive changes to the culture and workplace," according to Duane Rankin of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. He added, “This is very much a different organization than it was three months ago and I believe will be further changed three months from now." Suns Legacy Partners, LLC, the franchise's ownership group, issued a statement “in response to the story,” saying that the franchise has “used the report's findings to ‘grow and improve’” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 12/19).
REPORT CARD: ESPN.com's Baxter Holmes in yesterday's report noted the NBA-issued report by Wachtell Lipton looking into the culture around the Suns shows that the firm “elevated misconduct by Suns executives to the league for further action,” according to Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com. The report was "shrouded in anonymity," but Suns employees “quickly noticed that specific instances of executive misconduct were tied to Suns executives -- and directly to" [President & CEO Jason Rowley. Current and former Suns employees “confirmed specific accounts of alleged misconduct by Rowley and other Suns executives in the report -- and uncovered additional allegations, including verbal abuse of employees, mistreatment of pregnant and postpartum employees, and other instances of retaliation and intimidation.” Suns owner Robert Sarver brought Rowley aboard in 2007 and alleged incidents “arose early” in Rowley's tenure. The report states that one one occasion, an "executive 'barged' into a female employee's office, leaned over her desk, and cursed at her when he learned the employee had informally complained to a colleague about her reporting structure." From that point on, a former employee said that the woman “felt ‘iced’ out by Rowley.”
OTHER INCIDENTS: Current and former Suns employees told the lawyers that Rowley “wasn't the only executive complicit in workplace misconduct.” In 2019, "a representative of a team sponsor made unwanted advances toward a female Suns employee and grabbed her buttocks during a work trip. Two team executives were nearby when the incident occurred, and the female employee reported the touching to at least one of these executives. The incident was also "reported contemporaneously, at least in part, to another senior team executive and, approximately one month later, to three additional senior team executives." But no action "was taken against the sponsor representative.” According to team sources, Rowley, CRO Dan Costello, SVP/Ticket Sales and Service Kyle Pottinger, and General Counsel Melissa Goldenberg, were “among the executives who were aware of the incident.” In speaking of the 2019 incident in Mexico City, one Suns executive said, "We were never, never going to let go of [the representative of the team sponsor]. We were never going to let go of him, because revenue was that important" (ESPN.com, 12/19).
