Ex-Jazz Player Lobs Claims of Bigoted Remarks at Team Exec

It started with a tweet Wednesday evening from a former Utah Jazz shooting guard. "Bigot behavior is still very well present in our Country and should be exposed and expunged," wrote Elijah Millsap, who was on the team's roster from January 2015 to January 2016. But he wasn't just speaking in vague terms about the general state of the nation's bigotry issues, and what he said next now has the NBA investigating a top Jazz executive, reports ESPN. Millsap says that during an end-of-season meeting on April 6, 2015, Dennis Lindsey—then the team's GM and now the executive VP of basketball operations—said to Millsap "while conversing with Q. Snyder 'if u say one more word, I'll cut your Black ass and send you back to Louisiana.'" Q. Snyder is Quin Snyder, the team's coach. Sources tell ESPN that, in addition to Millsap, Lindsey, and Snyder, current GM Justin Zanik, who was then an assistant GM for the team, was also in attendance.

Lindsey has refuted Millsap's allegations, telling local media: "I categorically deny making that statement." Snyder told the press Wednesday he doesn't remember the conversation, but that he "can't fathom Dennis saying something like that," per KSL. Still, the NBA is looking into it. "The Jazz organization has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind," the team says in a statement. "We take these matters seriously." The team adds it's speaking with outside counsel to coordinate with the NBA to carry out a "comprehensive and unbiased review." Meanwhile, Millsap tells the Deseret News he never experienced other instances of racially insensitive language while on the team, adding that he doesn't think Lindsey is a racist but that he felt it necessary to note bigoted language was still being used in society. (More Utah Jazz stories.)