Pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. These aren’t terms you would usually link to an NBA franchise. The Sacramento Kings, however, are facing legal action from a former employee after she was allegedly double demoted for personal reasons and eventually let go in 2025.

Crystal Lee was an assistant athletic trainer for the Sacramento franchise from 2022 to 2025. This wasn’t her first such role in the league. Lee held the same title at the San Antonio Spurs in 2021-22, and for the NBA itself from November 2018 to May 2021. But after a bad experience with the Kings, she is reportedly suing the team and Jaspreet Randhawa, who is the senior director of athlete health.

Lee claims that after learning about her pregnancy, Randhawa said, “You’re f—–” and added that her life is “ruined after you have kids,” according to documents filed in court obtained by ESPN. Lee also accuses Randhawa of creating an unfavorable work culture, where “if you were not working around the clock, you were not committed.”

Lee was reportedly taken off ‌road games during the second trimester of her pregnancy in February 2023. Then, in April, her role was downgraded from an assistant athletic trainer to “administrator, health & performance/assistant athletic trainer,” a role that could be done remotely.

Now, Lee claims that Randhawa and the Kings’ assistant general manager, Wes Wilcox, assured her the change was temporary. The earlier role would be reopened for her the very next season. But that promise was allegedly not kept.

Ahead of the 2023-24 season, Lee returned from maternity leave. But a month later, the Kings reportedly hired another assistant athletic trainer. Lee was still kept off road games despite her asking head athletic trainer Joel Noland and Randhawa to work those… But why was that the case?

Lee wasn’t given clarity. In September 2024, the lawsuit claims the Kings demoted Lee (again), removing assistant athletic trainer from her title altogether. She couldn’t perform the core crux of her job, which was athletic training duties, anymore.

When Randhawa was asked about the reason for Lee’s demotions by an unnamed staff member, he allegedly replied that “it’s the baby, bro.”

Months later, in May 2025, Lee expressed her frustrations to Scott Perry, the Kings’ general manager, over being “excluded and stripped” after giving birth. She allegedly received the response that “complainers will not be tolerated.”

This happened right after she sought clarity from Phil Jabour, the vice president of player personnel, who allegedly told her that there was “no space for her to be hands-on with the Kings.” But according to the lawsuit, matters didn’t end there.

In fact, it allegedly got worse after Lee escalated the situation to Stacy Wegzyn, the VP of Human Resources. Instead of a resolution, Lee was fired, and the Kings cited an “alleged failure to meet performance expectations,” including failing to update expense reports.

Despite the allegations, the Kings have stood firm. Alexis Gabrielson, the Sacramento Kings’ lawyer, told ESPN in a statement that they deny all the claims made against them, further shedding light on how the organization treats its people.

“The Sacramento Kings categorically deny these allegations and reject the characterization of the organization and its workplace reflected in these claims made by a disgruntled former employee,” Gabrielson said in a statement. “The Kings take allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously and are committed to maintaining a workplace where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. The organization intends to vigorously defend against these claims through the legal process and will not comment further on the pending proceedings.”

On the other hand, Robert King, Lee’s attorney, said they’ve made “prior efforts” to resolve the dispute outside court, including a mediation session, but to no avail. But that isn’t affecting their end goal.

“You don’t get to brand yourself as a champion for women and then push out the first athletic trainer in league history to give birth on the job. We intend to prove exactly what happened here,” King said.

The lawsuit also references some serious, unprofessional past interactions between Lee, Doug Christie, now the Kings’ head coach, and another former staff member’s son, though Christie is not named as a defendant.

The lawsuit against the Kings accuses them of far more than wrongful termination

Crystal Lee alleges she was subject to sexual harassment during her Kings tenure. The lawsuit accuses Doug Christie of repeatedly “checking her out” while saying “Don’t report me to HR,” according to The Sacramento Bee.

Lee also claims that Cameron Brown, son of former Kings head coach Mike Brown, who was an intern for the Kings, repeatedly harassed her to spend time with him outside of work despite her consistently rejecting his advances.

A source close to the team, however, told the Sacramento Bee that Lee did not report any instances of unprofessionalism from her colleagues during her employment with the Kings.

The source also alleged that Lee’s new roles included the same compensation as her assistant athletic trainer position.

Many questions remain unanswered from both sides.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver or the league front office hasn’t publicly responded to this controversy yet.