Phoenix Suns president and CEO Jason Rowley, whom some staff positioned on the middle of allegations of verbal abuse, retaliation and intimidation within the office, has resigned from the group, group sources advised ESPN on Monday. Suns staff had been notified in an inside electronic mail from Suns interim governor Sam Garvin.
“I needed to let that Jason Rowley made the choice to depart the group,” Garvin wrote. “After nearly 15 years of onerous work and devoted service, Jason felt that the transition in possession created excellent timing to shut this chapter of his skilled journey and pursue new alternatives.
“We want Jason the most effective and are appreciative of his tireless work on behalf of our group.”
Rowley joined the Suns in 2007 and since 2012 has served in his present function. His resignation comes as Mat Ishbia, a billionaire mortgage lender, is about to be launched because the Suns’ new majority proprietor as early as Wednesday morning in Phoenix, sources have advised ESPN. Ishbia purchased the Suns and Mercury from Robert Sarver at a $4 billion valuation.
When ESPN printed a Dec. 19 2022 story about allegations of Suns misconduct extending past Robert Sarver, Rowley’s advised some group staff that he wouldn’t be resigning from his function, sources advised ESPN.
Through the assembly, Rowley added that whereas a brand new proprietor may finally oust him, he wouldn’t be stepping down, in accordance with the sources. In a later assertion to ESPN, Rowley successfully confirmed the workers’ account of the assembly, including “I communicated that whereas I have no idea my final destiny with new possession, I’ll by no means give up on this group and the individuals who make up this nice group.”
ESPN’s Dec. 19 story, based mostly on interviews with greater than two dozen present and former Suns staff, outlined particular accounts of alleged misconduct by Rowley and different Suns executives talked about within the September 2022 report launched by the New York-based legislation agency Wachtell Lipton. The NBA employed the agency to conduct an investigation into the Suns’ office and Sarver’s conduct after a November 2021 ESPN investigation.
ESPN additionally confirmed extra allegations, together with verbal abuse of staff, mistreatment of pregnant and postpartum staff, and different situations of retaliation and intimidation. Rowley’s conduct prolonged past misconduct towards girls, in accordance with the Wachtell findings and extra ESPN reporting.
The group declined to make Rowley or any of the executives accessible for remark however stated a number of of ESPN’s questions contained “factual inaccuracies and/or are disadvantaged of necessary context needed to grasp the totality of conditions which are sophisticated and issues of some dispute.”
Beforehand, in a September 2022 all-employee Zoom name on the day Sarver introduced that he could be promoting the group, Rowley addressed a query asking whether or not any executives could be held accountable for alleged misconduct. Rowley famous, partly, that there have been gadgets within the report that the group could be wanting into, with potential “corrective motion” to observe.
“That is about holding folks accountable, from prime to backside,” Rowley stated on the Zoom name, “and ensuring that we by no means discover ourselves in a scenario like this once more.”
After the decision, and within the days since, some present Suns staff advised ESPN that they remained hopeful that new possession would usher in their very own management group and change present executives they believed had been complicit in office tradition points.