UPDATE: 5/21/25 at 2:27 p.m. ET — Sophie Cunningham has released a statement denying she had an affair with Phoenix Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein.
“I am deeply saddened by the recent false accusations made against me by Gene Traylor, someone I do not know and have never met,” she wrote via X. “Let me be clear his statements are untrue and extremely hurtful.”
She continued: “I am here to compete, play basketball at the highest level and win for my team and my fans, while inspiring other women that they can do or be anything they ever dream of becoming. I hold myself to the highest integrity and my values are what guide me on and off the court.To the media who reported on this, I have always spoken the truth and been transparent with any press inquiry. In this instance it feels irresponsible that I was never asked for a comment about the accusation before several clickbait stories went to print.”
Cunningham concluded, “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.”
Original story:
The Phoenix Suns have denied a claim that team CEO Josh Bartelstein had an affair with the Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham.
The Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury share ownership, and Cunningham, 28, played for the Mercury from 2019 to 2024.
“The recent reports concerning Josh Bartelstein and Sophie Cunningham are entirely false and morally reprehensible,” Suns spokesperson Stacey Mitch told Front Office Sports in a story published Tuesday, May 20. “Let’s be absolutely clear about the origin of these claims.”
The report came from a lawsuit filed by Gene Traylor, the Suns’ former director of security, against the team, in which he accused the Suns of racial discrimination and claimed the franchise ignored major security concerns. Traylor’s suit alleged that the team’s vice president of security and risk management, Cornelius Craig, was hired to get rid of him.
To illustrate Craig’s alleged erratic behavior, Traylor claimed that Craig was telling people, “Josh Bartelstein is f***ing Sophie Cunningham.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Cunningham for comment.
Mitch added that Sheree D. Wright, the attorney behind the lawsuit, is also representing the plaintiffs in three additional suits against the Suns.
In a separate statement to ESPN on May 15, a Suns spokesperson called the allegations against the organization “delusional and categorically false.”
“The Supreme Court of Arizona has twice disciplined attorney Sheree Wright for committing numerous violations of the rules of professional conduct, and she is currently serving a two-year probation with the State Bar of Arizona,” the statement read.
Wright and Courtney Walters, the other attorney representing Traylor, responded to the statement by accusing the Suns of resorting “to personal and defamatory attacks” against Wright in a “transparent and calculated attempt to shift the public narrative, discredit the attorneys involved, and avoid accountability for their own misconduct.”
Mitch told Front Office Sports that Wright is attempting to “coerce” the organization into settling.
“Sheree Wright will not extort our organization and never see a single dollar,” she said.
The Mercury drafted Cunningham with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft. A consistent contributor for Phoenix during her six seasons with the club, she wound up in Indiana via a four-team trade in February that sent All-Star Satou Sabally to the Mercury.
Now playing alongside Caitlin Clark, Cunningham told Us in March that she is focused on empowering the women of the WNBA as the league continues to grow.
“To me, it’s not about competition,” she said. “I’m all about empowering other women. I’m about helping my teammates be their best selves. I’m all about being my best self. And I just feel like that if we can do that together, then great things are gonna happen.”
Read the full article here
