Suns president and CEO Jason Rowley resigned from his position with the franchise, sources tell Baxter Holmes of ESPN.
Rowley had been with the Suns since 2007 and has been the team’s president since 2012. He came under scrutiny following the publication of an ESPN report detailing team owner Robert Sarver‘s history of workplace misconduct in Phoenix.
ESPN’s reporting indicated that other high-level team executives, including Rowley, also treated employees poorly and engaged in acts of retaliation and intimidation.
Despite those allegations, Rowley reportedly told Suns employees in January that he had no intention of resigning from his role. He issued a statement to ESPN saying that the outlet’s reporting “misrepresented me and others,” adding that he would “never quit on this team and the people who make up this great organization.”
Less than a month later, he resigned, according to Holmes, though it’s fair to question how voluntary the decision was.
Sarver sold the Suns to Mat Ishbia, and the new owner is expected to formally take control of the franchise this week, so it seems likely that there will be turnover in the upper ranks of the organization – though not necessarily among basketball operations executives – in the near future as Ishbia puts his stamp on the team and looks to distance himself from the Sarver era.
More must-reads: