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A former employee of the Sacramento Kings has filed a lawsuit against the organization, claiming she was demoted and eventually fired as a result of her pregnancy.
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Crystal Lee, who was an assistant athletic trainer for the Kings from 2022 to 2025, is suing the team and its senior director of athlete health, Jaspreet Randhawa. Lee is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court, accusing the Kings of pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.
“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,” Alexis Gabrielson, the Kings’ attorney, said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “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.”
According to the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The Bee, Randhawa told Lee “You’re f—ed” when she told him she was pregnant, later saying “Your life is ruined after you have kids.”
Lee alleges that Randhawa created a culture that made members of his staff feel “if you were not working around the clock, you were not committed.”
According to the lawsuit, Lee was demoted during and after her pregnancy. Lee alleges that when she returned from maternity leave, the Kings kept her from traveling with the team and eventually prevented her from treating players.
In November 2024, another staff member told Lee he had asked Randhawa why he was limiting Lee’s responsibilities. Randhawa allegedly replied, “It’s the baby, bro.”
The lawsuit says Lee’s first demotion occurred in April 2023, about a month before she went on maternity leave. Lee was told her role change from assistant athletic trainer to “administrator, health & performance, assistant athletic trainer. The lawsuit alleges the change amounted to a demotion that deprived Lee of any right to travel with the team in the future, putting her in a remote position which only required travel “if deemed necessary by the Head Athletic Trainer.”
The lawsuit claims Lee was repeatedly assured that the first demotion would be temporary and her original position would be available to her the following season. Lee said she was prepared to perform all her duties and had already made arrangements so she could continue traveling with the team after the birth of her child.
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In September 2024, the lawsuit says, the Kings informed Lee that “assistant athletic trainer would be dropped from her title, that she was no longer allowed to represent herself as an athletic trainer, she could no longer list herself as a Kings contact for any visiting team personnel, and she could no longer perform any athletic training duties.”
In April 2025, Lee claims she told Randhawa and Phil Jabour, the team’s vice president of player development, she felt she was being “excluded and stripped of her athletic training responsibilities because she had a child.” Lee said the Kings offered to find her an athletic training job with another team, including their G League affiliate and four other professional teams.
According to the lawsuit, Lee met with Kings general manager Scott Perry in May 2025 to discuss her concerns. Lee claims Perry told her “complainers will not be tolerated.”
Lee alleges she was fired less than a month after reporting her complaints to the team’s senior vice president of human resources.
The lawsuit also alleges Lee was subject to sexual harassment with specific mentions of Kings head coach Doug Christie and Cameron Brown, the son of former Kings head coach Mike Brown. The lawsuit accuses Christie of repeatedly “checking her out” while saying “Don’t report me to HR.” The lawsuit alleges that Cameron Brown, who was an intern for the Kings, repeatedly harassed Lee to spend time with him outside of work despite her consistently rejecting or ignoring his invitations.
Sources close to the team told The Bee that at no point during Lee’s employment did she report the sexual advances she now alleges.
Sources said it was Lee who initiated the need for a role change, saying the organization worked proactively and in good faith to create a modified role to fit her needs. The new role included the same compensation as her assistant athletic trainer position, sources said.
Lee agreed to that role, performed in it for a significant period of time and only later claimed that the same arrangement was discriminatory once she became dissatisfied with its limitations, sources said. At the same time, Lee had documented performance issues in the modified role, which was the reason for her termination, sources said.
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This story was originally published August 20, 2026 at 5:59 PM.