A former Sacramento Kings athletic trainer says the organization demoted her twice, replaced her with a male colleague, and then fired her — all because she got pregnant and had a baby. Crystal Lee filed a lawsuit against the team on August 11 in Sacramento County Superior Court, alleging pregnancy discrimination, harassment and retaliation during her three years with the franchise.
Lee worked for the Kings from 2022 until 2025, and according to the complaint, the trouble started as her pregnancy progressed and continued well after she returned from maternity leave. As FOX40 reports, the suit claims Lee was benched from road games by the end of her pregnancy and was kept from traveling with the team even after she returned from leave in July 2023. The complaint alleges that Jas Randhawa, the Kings’ senior director of athlete health, responded to Lee’s pregnancy announcement by telling her, “You’re f—ed,” and later explained her demotions to a colleague by saying simply, “It’s the baby, bro.”
ESPN writer Michael Rothstein reported on the lawsuit Thursday, and per that account, Lee repeatedly asked Randhawa and Joel Noland, the team’s head athletic trainer, to let her travel with the team again. Instead, the complaint alleges the Kings told her she was not needed and sent a third assistant athletic trainer in her place. That hire eventually replaced her outright, according to the complaint, which the Yardbarker account lays out on a precise timeline: Lee was benched from road travel in February 2023, downgraded to a remote administrative role in April 2023, and stripped of her athletic trainer job title in September 2024, before her termination on June 12, 2025.
Demoted to a Desk Job
The complaint describes Lee’s eventual role as a fully remote, clerical performance-administration position that explicitly forbade her from treating Kings players — a stark shift for someone the lawsuit describes as the first athletic trainer in NBA history to announce a pregnancy and the first to give birth while employed by an NBA team. Lee complained to at least three Kings staff members about her treatment, per the complaint, and Stacy Wegzyn, the team’s senior vice president of human resources, assured her she would not face retaliation for speaking up.
That assurance did not hold, according to the lawsuit: the Kings fired Lee less than a month after her third complaint. Attorney Robert King, who represents Lee, said the team demoted her twice, gave her job to a man, and fired her after she spoke up. “The lawsuit will seek to prove what happened,” King said. Before filing suit, King had attempted to resolve the dispute through a formal mediation session with the Kings, but the two sides failed to reach a settlement, according to a report cited on Reddit’s r/kings community.
Executives’ Alleged Responses
The complaint also details tense meetings with Kings leadership in April 2025. Phil Jabour, the team’s vice president of player personnel, told Lee there was no space for her to be hands-on with the Kings, and separately offered to help facilitate her transfer to another NBA team if she expected to be restored to a hands-on athletic trainer role, according to ABC10. During an introductory meeting that same month, General Manager Scott Perry reportedly told Lee that complainers would not be tolerated and suggested he would fire everybody in her department if complaints persisted, a detail also reported by Sports Illustrated.
The lawsuit further alleges that head coach Doug Christie, who was an assistant coach when the alleged harassment occurred, looked up and down Lee’s figure and told her, “Don’t report me to human resources,” according to the complaint. Separately, the complaint alleges that the son of former Kings head coach Mike Brown, who worked as a team intern, repeatedly harassed Lee to spend time with him outside work despite her repeated rejection, and engaged in similar unwanted advances toward another female employee who reported him to team leadership.
Kings Deny the Allegations
Team spokesperson Alexis Gabrielson said the Sacramento Kings categorically deny the allegations and will vigorously defend against the claims. The organization has denied both the allegations and the characterization of its workplace, and said it will not comment further on the pending proceedings, instead planning to defend against the claims through the legal process.
Before Sacramento, Lee worked in professional basketball for the NBA league office from November 2018 to May 2021 and served as an assistant athletic trainer for the San Antonio Spurs during the 2021–22 season, establishing her as one of the few female athletic trainers in the league. The Kings organization has faced prior workplace litigation in Sacramento County, including a 2022 sexual harassment lawsuit from a former player development coordinator and a 2023 retaliation complaint involving members of the team’s dance squad, according to the McCormack Law Firm.
What California Law Requires
Lee’s case unfolds against a backdrop of strict state protections. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and Pregnancy Disability Leave Law, employers with five or more workers must provide up to four months of job-protected pregnancy disability leave, which can be combined with 12 weeks of bonding leave under the California Family Rights Act, per the California Civil Rights Department. Employees who prove pregnancy discrimination, harassment or retaliation under FEHA can recover back pay, front pay, emotional distress damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees, according to HRCalifornia.
The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in 2023 with regulations implemented in June 2024, also required employers with 15 or more workers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related limitations during Lee’s tenure, per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It remains unclear whether the Kings will pursue arbitration or seek summary judgment as the case moves through Sacramento County Superior Court.
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