The Utah Jazz will cooperate with the NBA investigation into claims that a longtime team executive made bigoted statements during a player’s exit interview in 2015, and will reportedly share contemporaneous notes from the meeting with the league.
Former Utah Jazz guard Elijah Millsap accused executive vice president Dennis Lindsey of making racist statements, which the veteran NBA executive has denied.
‘On April 16, 2015,’ Millsap tweeted Wednesday, ‘D. Lindsey made bigot (sic) remarks in my exit interview while conversing with [Jazz coach Quin] Snyder.’
Millsap then claimed Lindsey said: ‘if u say one more word, I’ll cut your black a** and send you back to Louisiana.’
Both Lindsey and Snyder have rejected Millsap’s claim.
Former Utah Jazz guard Elijah Millsap (right) accused executive vice president Dennis Lindsey (left) of making racist statements, which the veteran NBA executive has denied. Millsap then claimed Lindsey said: ‘if u say one more word, I’ll cut your black a** and send you back to Louisiana’
Wednesday on Twitter, Millsap claimed that racism is ‘very well present’ in the NBA. He then got more specific, claiming that Lindsey threatened to cut his ‘black ass’ in a 2015 meeting
The Jazz issued a statement on Thursday, saying they will work with the NBA to investigate the claim.
‘The Jazz organization has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind,’ the team said in a statement. ‘We take these matters seriously. We have proactively engaged outside counsel to work in coordination with the NBA to thoroughly investigate this matter.
‘We seek a comprehensive and unbiased review of the situation.’
The league’s probe will be informed by detailed team notes from the 2015 meeting, according to ESPN.
Millsap did not immediately respond to a message seeking reaction to the Jazz statement and the opening of an investigation. He tweeted later Wednesday that he felt telling his side of ‘my narrative … will teach my sons how to stand up and control their own. Inspired by the courageous souls who fight for racial equality and social justice daily.’
Millsap tweeted Wednesday that bigotry is still very prevalent in the United States
In his final interview with reporters when that 2014-15 season ended, Millsap spoke about how much he enjoyed joining the Jazz and seeing the team grow and did not mention any incident with Lindsey. It’s common for media end-of-season sessions to occur on the same day as the team exit interviews, but it is unknown if Millsap’s meeting with reporters was before or after his meeting with Lindsey and Snyder.
Millsap gave no indication of any unhappiness with the organization in the interview with reporters that day. He talked about his level of comfort with the team and with the city because of his brother’s long tenure with the Jazz, even saying that he knew the names of the ushers. Millsap also said he had ‘a pretty good relationship’ with Snyder.
‘We’ve been nip and tuck on some things, but we’ve always had the same interest and same goal in mind, and that’s winning,’ Millsap said at that time of Snyder. ‘So, he’s going to put me in my position, put me in my place where I can be successful, and I’ve just got to listen and get better.’
The Jazz wound up waiving Millsap in January 2016, after 67 games with the team over two seasons. He averaged 4.2 points in those games and did not indicate any unhappiness in a farewell tweet after the team gave him the news.
‘Thank You Jazz organization for the opportunity,’ Millsap wrote on January 5, 2016. ‘Really appreciate my teammates and all the Jazz fans for your love &support.’ He closed the tweet with the hashtag ‘AlltheBest.’
The Jazz wound up waiving Millsap in January 2016, after 67 games with the team over two seasons. He averaged 4.2 points in those games and did not indicate any unhappiness in a farewell tweet after the team gave him the news. ‘Thank You Jazz organization for the opportunity,’ Millsap wrote on January 5, 2016
Jazz center Rudy Gobert seemed to be taken by surprise by the allegation against Lindsey.
‘I never heard about it,’ Gobert said. ‘Elijah was actually one of the guys that I was close with when he was part of the team a few years ago. I’m just going to reach out to him and find out. Until we have more information, it’s hard to tell. It was six years ago. That’s why it’s kind of tough to understand.’
Jazz center Rudy Gobert seemed to be taken by surprise by the allegation against Lindsey. ‘I never heard about it,’ Gobert said. ‘Elijah was actually one of the guys that I was close with when he was part of the team a few years ago. I’m just going to reach out to him and find out. Until we have more information, it’s hard to tell. It was six years ago. That’s why it’s kind of tough to understand’
Millsap, 33, is from Louisiana. He is the younger brother of another former Jazz player, Paul Millsap, an All-Star who now plays with the Denver Nuggets. Elijah last played for Spain’s CB Breogán in 2018-19.
He went undrafted out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2010, but caught on with the G League’s Tulsa 66ers and later Israel’s Maccabi Ashdod B.C. before signing with the Jazz in 2015. Paul had signed with the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent two years earlier.
Lindsey is well known in NBA circles after starting his career with the Houston Rockets as a video coordinator and scout in 1996 and working his way up to director of basketball development in 1998 and director of player personnel in 1999. He ultimately became the team’s assistant general manager before moving on to a similar role with the San Antonio Spurs.
In 2007, he was hired as Utah’s GM and was ultimately promoted to his currently role of executive vice president of basketball operations.
The Utah Jazz are cooperating with an NBA investigation into former guard Elijah Millsap’s allegation that executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey made bigoted comments during a 2015 end-of-season meeting, the team announced Thursday.
The probe will include the sharing of detailed notes taken in the April 2015 meeting that was attended by Millsap and three Jazz officials, sources said.
‘The Jazz organization has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind,’ the team said in a statement. ‘We take these matters seriously. We have proactively engaged outside counsel to work in coordination with the NBA to thoroughly investigate this matter. We seek a comprehensive and unbiased review of the situation.’
Utah officials, including Lindsey, encouraged the league office’s opening of a review of Millsap’s allegation, which was lodged on social media Wednesday night.
While making a series of posts to Twitter about how bigotry ‘is still very well present’ and is a problem that needs to be addressed, Millsap alleged that Lindsey ‘made bigot remarks in my exit interview while conversing with Q. Snyder ‘if you say one more word, I’ll cut your Black ass and send you back to Louisiana.”
In prepared words to the Salt Lake City media, Lindsey said: ‘I categorically deny making that statement.’ Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters Wednesday that he ‘can’t fathom Dennis saying something like that.’
Millsap had an exit meeting in April 2015 that sources said included Lindsey, Snyder and general manager Justin Zanik, who was then an assistant general manager tasked with keeping detailed notes of the conversation.
Those notes were entered into a team database, and league forensic investigators can determine whether they’ve been altered or updated in any way, sources said.
End-of-season meetings — also commonly called exit meetings — are staples of NBA organizations, typically wide-ranging conversations between front offices and players that review the past season and look to the future. The Jazz have kept detailed notes on every one of those meetings since Lindsey started as the franchise’s GM in 2012, sources said.
Millsap played two seasons with the Jazz, including returning for the 2015-2016 season. His older brother, Paul, played his first seven years with the Jazz, leaving after the 2012-13 season.
Lindsey was promoted to executive VP in 2019, and has presided over the rebuilding of an organization that currently has the best record in the NBA at 26-6.