{"id":48220,"date":"2025-05-21T19:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/48220\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T19:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:55:08","slug":"sophie-cunningham-denies-allegations-she-had-an-affair-with-suns-mercury-exec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/48220\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham denies allegations she had an affair with Suns, Mercury exec\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Mercury forward Sophie Cunningham has denied allegations that she <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/20\/sports\/sophie-cunningham-accused-of-having-affair-with-suns-mercury-ceo-in-bombshell-lawsuit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had an affair with Josh Bartelstein<\/a>, the married CEO of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, which was mentioned in a lawsuit filed in May by Gene Traylor, the director of security for the Suns.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Cunningham, who was traded to the Indiana Fever in January, explained that she does not know Traylor and called the allegations \u201cuntrue and extremely hurtful\u201d in a statement posted to her social media on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am deeply saddened by the recent false accusation made against me by Gene Traylor, someone I do not know and have never met,\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sophaller\/status\/1925243571956830574\" rel=\"nofollow\"> Cunningham said<\/a>. \u201cLet me be clear his statements are untrue and extremely hurtful. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36002975\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-103777656.jpg\" alt=\"Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever dribbles the ball during the second half against the Washington Mystics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 3, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  \" class=\"wp-image-36002975\"  \/>Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever dribbles the ball during the second half against the Washington Mystics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 3, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana.   Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo 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 comment about the accusation before several clickbait stories went to print. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham played for the Mercury from 2019 until 2024. The franchise drafted her in the second round of the 2019 WNBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Traylor alleges in his lawsuit that Cornelius Craig, the Suns\u2019 vice president of security and risk management, claimed Bartelstein was engaged in an affair with Cunningham.<\/p>\n<p>Bartelstein, 35, has been married to his wife, Sydney, for two years as of November 2024, according to phoenixmag.com.<\/p>\n<p>The Suns\u00a0have <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/20\/sports\/suns-accuse-lawyer-of-fabricating-sophie-cunningham-affair-in-140-million-shakedown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">denied the accusations<\/a>\u00a0in Traylor\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe recent reports concerning Josh Bartelstein and Sophie Cunningham are entirely false and morally reprehensible,\u201d Suns senior vice president of communications Stacey Mitch said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Mercury forward Sophie Cunningham has denied allegations that she had an affair with Josh Bartelstein, the married&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[12890,7,459,6,2065,6908,472,4045,66,604,458],"class_list":{"0":"post-48220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-affairs","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-indiana-fever","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-phoenix","13":"tag-phoenix-mercury","14":"tag-phoenix-suns","15":"tag-phoenixsuns","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-suns","18":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114547584284433509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}