The Sacramento Kings are facing a workplace lawsuit from a former member of their athletic training staff.
ESPN reported that Crystal Lee, who worked as an assistant athletic trainer for the Kings from 2022 until 2025, filed suit in California Superior Court earlier this month. The complaint names the organization and senior director of athlete health Jaspreet Randhawa, and alleges pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.
Lee's central claim is that her role changed after she became pregnant and after she returned from maternity leave. According to ESPN's account of the court documents, Lee alleges she was kept from traveling with the team, later prevented from treating Kings players and eventually fired less than a month after raising complaints with the team's senior vice president of human resources.
The Kings deny the allegations. Attorney Alexis Gabrielson said in a statement to ESPN that the organization categorically rejects the claims and the description of its workplace. The statement said the Kings take allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously, are committed to a respectful workplace and intend to defend the case through the legal process.
Lee's attorney, Robert King, told ESPN that prior efforts to resolve the matter were unsuccessful and that the two sides attended mediation before the lawsuit moved forward. The NBA did not immediately respond to ESPN's request for comment.
The complaint includes several specific allegations about how Lee says her job changed. ESPN reported that Lee claims Randhawa told her, "You're f---ed," when she said she was pregnant and later told her that life "is ruined after you have kids." The suit also alleges Randhawa created a department culture where employees were treated as uncommitted unless they worked around the clock.
Lee says the Kings stopped her from working road games in February 2023, during her second trimester and months before her son's birth that May. The lawsuit says she was moved in April 2023 from assistant athletic trainer into a hybrid administrator of health and performance/assistant athletic trainer role, a job she says could be done remotely.
According to the suit, Lee was told by Randhawa and then-assistant general manager Wes Wilcox that the change would be temporary and that she would return to her old role the next season. Lee alleges that did not happen.
After she returned from maternity leave before the 2023-24 season, the Kings hired another full-time assistant athletic trainer, according to the complaint. Lee says she asked to work away games but remained off the road. She also alleges the team promoted another person into an assistant athletic trainer opening while her own responsibilities kept shrinking.
The lawsuit says the situation escalated again in September 2024, when Lee was demoted and assistant athletic trainer was removed from her title. She alleges that change kept her from performing athletic training duties.
Doug Christie is mentioned in the complaint because of negative interactions Lee says she had with him when he was an assistant coach, but he is not listed as a defendant. General manager Scott Perry is also not a defendant, though the suit says Lee met with him in May 2025 about her claims and was told, "complainers will not be tolerated." The following week, Lee brought her complaints to human resources, according to ESPN.
Lee was fired the next month. The lawsuit says Perry and human resources vice president Stacy Wegzyn told her the termination was based on performance expectations, including expense reports. Lee alleges the timing and surrounding circumstances point to retaliation.
There is also a basketball-operations layer to the story. Athletic trainers are part of the day-to-day player environment, travel schedule and medical workflow, so a dispute over who could treat players or travel with the team goes directly to the structure around the roster. That does not prove Lee's claims, but it explains why the case has broken through as more than a normal employment dispute.
The case is now a legal matter, not a concluded finding. Lee is seeking unspecified damages, while the Kings say they will fight the claims. The next stage will turn on court filings, evidence and whether either side moves toward settlement before discovery pushes more details into the open.
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