Earlier this year, Phoenix suns President and CEO Rick Welts made headlines by coming out and revealing he’s gay. Today, he’s back in the headlines, because he, out of nowhere, quit his job today.
“The most important thing for me is to get my personal and professional lives better aligned,” Welts told the newspaper. “They’ve probably never been aligned. I’m 58 years old and it’s time to do that.”
… “This isn’t one of those departures to see greener pastures. It really is completely a personal situation,” Welts said Friday. “These guys have been tremendously accommodating and any other inference than that is absolutely crazy.”
By all accounts, Welts is widely admired and his decision to come out of the closet was supported by everyone he spoke to in, and out of the Suns organization. There’s no indication that this is anything besides a personal decision. The Arizona republic reports:
Welts first met with Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver about his desire to leave his contract early two months ago in Coronado. In large part, Welts said he needs to relocate because his partner has joint custody of two children in Sacramento.
And his decision to come out did play a role.
“There’s a great sense of satisfaction and freedom in that. What I’m doing is uncharacteristic of Rick Welts. Leaving one of the best jobs in sports to go figure out what’s next is something I never would’ve done a year ago or five years ago or 10 years ago. Personally, there is a level of confidence and that I can figure it out and the future is going to be terrific. I’m just in a different place.”
Good for him for being strong enough to put family over work. Few people can make a tough decision like that. Of course, with a potential move to Sacramento, you have to wonder if he’ll eventually catch on with the Kings.
This does put the Suns in an unenviable position of reorganizing their team’s management. Someone is going to have to take the team over. And with subtle signs that lockout is at least inching closer to a resolution, there is a little unanticipated pressure on the team to find a replacement. Chances are it won’t affect the product on the floor, but time will tell if it does.
