The Phoenix Suns are facing another lawsuit, their fourth in seven months, this time from employee Gene Traylor. In his report, Traylor accuses the organization of retaliation and negligence, citing multiple serious crimes, particularly failed arena security audits.
Traylor, the team’s safety, security, and risk management director, filed the case at the US District Court in Arizona on Tuesday. ESPN’s Baxter Holmes obtained a copy of the complaint and reported its contents.
NEWS: The Suns are being sued by a current employee, the fourth suit against the team since Nov. In this one, a staffer says he was demoted after raising security concerns & that the Suns failed multiple arena audits, w/ handguns & knives making it inside: https://t.co/s8p7jWQ9IL
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) May 15, 2025
According to Traylor, the team retaliated against him after submitting a report in 2023. It identified theft by a former employee costing $40,000, a security breach at a photo-op involving team execs, and an incident involving the harassment of former Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner.
The report led to the Phoenix Suns demoting Traylor. Moreover, the team “discouraged him from taking medical leave when he was diagnosed with cancer.”
In the recently submitted presentation, Traylor emphasized that law enforcement conducted field tests in 2023 and 2024, where officers smuggled weapons into the Suns’ games without detection. Moreover, this year’s NBA security audit also found more failures at the team’s arena.
Traylor is seeking undisclosed damages for his case.
Other than Traylor, Andrea Trischan, Jason Cope, and an anonymous employee reported the Phoenix Suns for harassment, discrimination, and labor misclassification. Vicente Gonzales also had a now-deleted LinkedIn post alleging internal misconduct and mismanagement by the team.
But despite the lingering accusations, the Phoenix Suns have strongly denied the allegations and are fighting back hard. Their spokeswoman even denounced Traylor’s two lawyers during their statement with ESPN.
“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 spokesperson said.
“This time, Ms. Wright and her client have made absurd accusations of misconduct surrounding the security department of the Phoenix Suns. These allegations are delusional and categorically false.”
The Phoenix Suns face a plethora of problems this offseason
Besides their pending lawsuits, the Phoenix Suns had a notoriously bad run. Coming from being 49-33 and second in the Pacific in 2023, they went down to 36-46, the worst in their division this season.
The team started exemplary, going 8-2 in their first ten matches. However, it went downhill from there. Suffering from multiple losses, the Suns’ largest winning streak since November had only been four matches. Moreover, they ended the season with an eight-game losing streak, then a win against San Antonio, and a loss against Sacramento.
The team’s performance this year made many people doubt the Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal superteam they made. In this offseason, Phoenix is surely on the move to fix its roster soon.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
