Josh Bartelstein talks role, Kevin Durant's relationship with Suns, recruiting Tyus Jones and more

On Tuesday, Phoenix Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein sat down with the PHNX Suns Podcast for an exclusive interview covering a variety of topics.

From his role with the Suns, Mercury and Valley Suns, to recruiting Tyus Jones, to the team’s relationship with Kevin Durant, Bartelstein talked about a variety of topics after a busy summer for all three teams.

He also shed some light on his working relationship with owner Mat Ishbia and general manager James Jones, how they’ve gone about changing the culture in Phoenix, what to expect from coach Mike Budenholzer and the new rookies, and much, much more.

The transcript below has been edited for clarity, or if you’d prefer to watch instead, here’s the full interview from Tuesday’s episode:

Josh Bartelstein interview

Greg Esposito: All right, so I’ve toured the facility, I know there’s a court in here. I also know the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry’s really big. I know you played at Michigan, I know Mat played at Michigan State. One-on-one on that court, who wins?

Josh Bartelstein: I hope he sees this, I might have to send him the clip. He’s the owner, he’s my boss. I do think age-wise, I have an advantage there, size-wise. So it would be a battle. I think we may have to have a game and we can sell some tickets and people see it. It wouldn’t be clean. It’d be messy, physical for sure. But I have a court here now, so I get to work on my game.

Greg Esposito: Say we put you guys in your prime, who wins then?

Josh Bartelstein: I mean, my YouTube clips don’t lie. You can see my jumper. I always say, like, my step-back was there before anyone else’s. So I’ll let you guys watch the clips, but I do feel good….You guys will do a live show from [this one-on-one game as a community event]. I would love it.

Lindsey Smith: The Olympic games, five Suns and Mercury players out there winning gold, absolutely crushing it. How excited and proud are you of the fact that you guys had so much representation there?

Josh Bartelstein: It really is awesome to have five more than any kind of — I call it ‘parent family’ of teams, and the roles they all played. It’s funny, we had our weekly leadership meeting yesterday morning, and I showed [Devin Booker]’s tweet, right? Where Kyle Kuzma said, “We need stars to take a bigger role” or “take a role where they’re playing defense, diving on the floor for loose balls, accepting it.”

And Book a year ago said, “I’ll do it.” And I said, “That’s like a microcosm of how I want our team to be here, if everyone will do any single role.” So to have a superstar like Devin do that is the coolest thing ever. Steve Kerr calling him the unsung hero, MVP.

I’ll do it https://t.co/77PBGNEQ0W

— Book (@DevinBook) September 12, 2023

Kevin Durant, like, you pinch yourself, Kevin Durant plays for the Phoenix Suns, the all-time leading USA scorer and rebounder. And to see him come back after missing the first part of it, again, you kind of pinch yourself. Those two guys are on the Phoenix Suns.

And then for the Merc, [Diana Taurasi] winning her sixth, which is just crazy. Six gold medals! The [Britney Griner] story about how emotional it is for her and to see her, and you can feel that around this office. And then Kahleah Copper, taking that next step from being a star to a global superstar and taking over in the gold medal game on both ends of the court. And she’s all ours. So I think it’s so cool. What’s even cooler is the stories within them. They all have their own unique story, and to have five of ’em is an awesome thing for our organization.

Gerald Bourguet: This is a question that we get a lot from Suns fans: They want to know what a day in the life of Josh Bartelstein looks like. I know that’s a difficult question to answer because you have Suns, Merc and the Valley Suns now, but what does a day in your life look like?

Josh Bartelstein: Every day is a little crazy, but I love it. It’s so unique in that my job is multiple teams, now three with the Valley Suns coming, and both business and basketball — and the real estate and building these things.

So some days it’s recruiting Tyus Jones and talking to him and his agent and his wife about why being a Phoenix Sun means so much. Some days it’s about our schedule release that’s coming out this week and ticket prices and how we’re gonna generate revenue. Other days it’s about building this amazing building we’re in right now and how we make team members happy here.

But the core of it, honestly, is building our culture. I know that sounds a little cliche, but when Mat hired me, I knew my No. 1 job was whether you work for the Mercury, the Suns — and that’s why Player 15 Group is so important, it’s one organization that’s bigger than yourself — it’s making this a great place for people to work. And I care so much about people coming here with a smile on their face and loving what they’re doing.

I think amongst all the things I get to do, I always say, like, is it a great place to work where people tell their friends, “I love doing what I do.” And we’ve done that here over the last 16 months, and hopefully you feel it and see it. I know some of you have worked here before, so you know what this place is all about, and I’m so proud of what we’re building.”

Greg Esposito: What are some examples of that culture and change that you guys have implemented since you came in?

Josh Bartelstein: You can talk about it all you want, but you gotta actually do it. And my biggest thing is it’s a people-first culture, so I got rid of the word “employee.” Everyone here is a team member, and I think that matters, because I don’t just go up to Gerald and ask, you know, when is his article coming out and what’s he writing. I want to talk to Gerald about who he is as a person, how his honeymoon was, what he’s doing this weekend, you know, if he’s watching the gold medal game. And I mean it.

And I do it with everyone here, whether it’s Stacey Mitch who reports directly to me, or an intern who just started last week, like, I walk around this office all day. People are like, “Do you actually work?” But I walk around this office all day and get to know people of who they are, and when you show you care, having a true care factor, people buy into what we’re doing. So I think what it’s shown is whether it’s me or an intern or Stacey or texting Gerald about his honeymoon, we show we care and people buy into that care factor. It’s not fake, it’s in everything that we do.

Lindsey Smith: Take us into the process of how you three at the top — you, Mat Ishbia, James Jones — and the dynamic there and how you manage the day-to-day and what you each bring.

Josh Bartelstein: Yeah, it’s a great question. Mat’s awesome. I think we have a huge competitive advantage from an ownership standpoint. His age, he can connect. Having played, he understands the game of basketball, which is so important. And then resource-wise, he doesn’t bat an eye to what we’re doing. And many people wouldn’t do that. So Mat and I talk all day, every day, it’s the best thing ever. My wife jokes that he’s higher than her on the speed dial list, and he probably is right now.

And James is right there, and we talk all the time too, and we have weekly calls, but we talk about everything. I think the best teams don’t have any bifurcation between business and basketball. It’s all tied together, whether it’s a budget or adding a player or a marketing plan and recruiting a player, you can’t just have one side do it. So in our structure, we’re all tied together, and James and I talk all the time about, you know, trades and signings and building our team and adding medical staff. Like, it’s all tied together, and James hears all the talk about business — ticket sales and partnerships, and he comes to pitches with us.

And I think it’s the ultimate ‘one plus one is three’ where if we do those things together, have an amazing owner in Mat, who’s part of it, we can do awesome things. And I think if you stack up what’s happened here over the last 16 months, whether it was Mat’s first day getting Kevin Durant, or getting a Bradley Beal or a new TV deal, our new food and beverage deal, the culture piece, WNBA All-Star, there’s a lot of wins.

Are we perfect? No. We have a long way to go, yes, but our wins, I would take over anyone. And the cool part is it’s the spectrum of wins is between business, basketball and everything in between as well.

Gerald Bourguet: You guys got one of the best signings of the offseason despite being limited with what you could work with in Tyus Jones. Can you kind of walk us through how that unfolded? Because none of us were really expecting him to be there at that point.

Josh Bartelstein: We pulled it out of the back pocket. I think it’s why relationships matter so much. His agent, Kevin Bradbury, and I are friendly, and there’s a balance of just checking in and knowing what’s going on. And James and I would talk all the time about, “Hey, if we could get Tyus, it would be a home run.” But the first 10 days of free agency, you’re kind of just sitting there and seeing how the market plays out. I think with the new rules and, like, the cap space, a lot of people got squeezed.

So our first real meeting with Tyus and his agent Kevin was in Vegas during Summer League, and we had a nice drink and kind of talked about the role and vision, how it could be a perfect fit, but also just that they were gonna take their time and see how things played out. And from there, then we said, like, “Let’s go all in and recruit him, and the worst thing they can do is say no to us.”

But we went all in on recruiting him, from little gift bags to videos for their kids, to all the small details and showing the care factor. And it was the same kind of thing we did for Bradley Beal when we had to, like, recruit Brad to come pick us when he waived his no-trade clause to come here.

We believe in that, and we think on the margins, we’re gonna win. Obviously if someone offers you way more money, like, that matters. But if it’s close or it’s on the margins, we think the community we have here, the relationships we have here, the concierge service we have here, we can really give ourselves an advantage, and it’s worked in getting some of these guys to pick us.

Greg Esposito: I hate to do this to you, but I found your old Twitter account. And I found a tweet from Nov. 22, 2010:

Never thought I'd say this but the Heat really don't look like a good team. Shows how important having a true pg really is.

— Josh Bartelstein (@Jbart20) November 23, 2010

Greg Esposito: Do you need to apologize to James [Jones]? Because James was on that roster.

Josh Bartelstein: James [Jones] has gotta work on his ball-handling skills! [Laughs.] That’s the takeaway. Size, everyone wants to get bigger, if James could’ve been more of a point guard, then it would’ve been fine!

Greg Esposito: I do want to ask though, your Michigan blog was well-written, you turned it into a book. Was that something that you had envisioned doing?

Josh Bartelstein: Never. I mean, as a walk-on, throughout my first year — it’s why the Devin Booker tweet means so much to me, the “I’ll do it,” — my first year was just proving that I belonged on the team, and over those four years, getting to be the captain my fourth year was kind of like a full-circle moment as being the one leading that team.

And Michigan fans are crazy, so they loved hearing about our team and the fact we were that good. I always joked my towel-waving was good, but we were good because we had Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway and Mitch McGary and Caris LeVert. We had six NBA players, and, like, I’m in the NBA now too, just not as a player.

So our fans loved it, and I was able to turn those blogs into a book, as you said, which was never the plan. I was just writing one blog at a time, figuring, you know, “This is cool, I like writing. I like connecting with people.” And then when we got to the Final Four, a publisher said, “Hey, you could you can make some money off this and turn it into a book.”

So I spent the summer kind of adding some pages to it. I had a lot of pictures in there, that was a key part for me to make sure it was a picture book as well, and then my first six months, I was kind of going on a little mini-book tour, which I’ll always have as my first job was an author.”

Greg Esposito: Well, the book has got four-and-a-half stars on Amazon, just so you know.

Josh Bartelstein: My grandma voted a lot.

Lindsey Smith: Our writer would be upset if I didn’t ask you about building around the Big 3 and how that approach kind of shifted from last summer to this summer, like with Tyus Jones. What were the differences in your mind?

Josh Bartelstein: I read all your guys’ stuff, I read a lot of stuff. I think there wasn’t as much of a shift as last year. We ranked and targeted guys, and we got a lot of them early, and it kind of fell in our lap of guys saying, “Hey, we wanted to [join].” I think the player option strategy was a smart one. Like, we got those guys.

This year, it took longer. Like, Monte Morris took some time, Tyus took a lot of time, Mason [Plumlee], we had to really work on. So it was still targeting our guys. I think — you know, I read Gerald’s turnover article, I think the point guard thing is overplayed. Like, if you look at the turnovers, I do think the question is, how do you optimize our team?

That’s really what the question is: How do you get the best version of not just the Big 3, but the best version of Nurk and Grayson and Royce? And that’s adding good talent, and Monte Morris and Tyus are really talented, proven NBA players.

And I think the other piece is the market shifted this year, where, I don’t know, Tyus Jones and Monte Morris the year prior probably aren’t minimum players, right? And who knows? Mason Plumlee, same thing, he got $5 million from the Clippers. So part of it also was what’s changed in the league, and we were opportunistic and kind of had our game plan. And I think it worked out for us, and we’ll see how it goes into this year, but I like our depth. I think if you really look at our team, we have real depth across the board, and we feel good about that.

Gerald Bourguet: We’ve seen these Kevin Durant “trade rumors” that have come up, which seem more based in conjecture than anything else, but how have the conversations been with KD? Obviously he’s eligible for a one-year contract extension, it seems like everything we’ve heard is he wants to be here and the feeling is mutual, but how have those conversations been?

Josh Bartelstein: “Awesome. Well, I’ll talk about the tweets first. It’s like one of those moments where you know where you were. I remember the Mikal Bridges trade happens, obviously, and it’s like, “Oh wow, major, major trade,” and you think all the talk is gonna be about New York and Brooklyn, and then somehow, boom, Phoenix gets thrown into the mix ’cause they traded our swaps with Houston. And I’m laughing. Like, that’s how you know you’re kind of in the inner circle is they’re talking about your team when you have nothing to do with the trade.

NBA Draft night is the best. Everyone talking about the drama and storylines, some are right and some are just wrong.
My turn. Phoenix loves Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant loves Phoenix, and we are competing for a championship this year because we have the team to do it. Gotta…

— Mat Ishbia (@Mishbia15) June 26, 2024

But I love Mat’s tweet in supporting Kevin, and I think the most important part is you can’t just have conversations when there’s issues or things come up, right? ‘Cause then it’s not true and authentic. It goes to our care factor. So I talk to KD all the time about how his life is, about the Olympics, a lot of time we’re doing FaceTime audios in Easton Paris, and it’s, again, the coolest thing for me, I’m talking to Kevin Durant about basketball. Again, I pinch myself.

But I think everyone’s head’s in the right place. He loves it here. We talk to Rich Kleiman, who’s his partner, all the time about the vision and what we’re building, and everyone’s really happy, and I think we’re gonna have a really really good year. And Kevin’s part of all the discussions about the vision for the team, all the stuff we’re doing on the court, off the court. So the fact that we have all that dialogue, there’s equity built into it. If you do those things, everything else will take care of itself.

Greg Esposito: We’ve heard a lot of talk about the NBA’s second tax apron over the last few years. It seems like you guys took that apron, put it on and said, “Let’s cook.” Has that approach provided more opportunity or advantages?

Josh Bartelstein: I think everyone’s still trying to figure out what the second apron means. I think that you have to feel like you have a really, really good team to go do what we’re doing, and we feel good about that.

The key is keep getting players and then retaining them, and that’s where getting Grayson [Allen] and [Jusuf Nurkic] — two legitimate, starting-level players that are on good contracts — was huge for us. The Royce O’Neale trade was critical for us, right? He was really good for us last year. Getting Josh Okogie, I think he’ll have a really good year and keeping him. Bol Bol, and being able to get Monte, Mason and Tyus, like, you gotta find ways to keep them. It may be impossible based on the rules, but you try.

So I think if you can get ahead of it a little bit and keep your own guys, it goes a long way. And then we’re still figuring it out. I think the key is having a competitive team that you feel like can compete at the highest level, which we do, and you have all these different toggles you can mess around with different trade assets. So we feel good about where it is now, but we’re gonna learn a lot more as we go through this year and see what teams do.

Lindsey Smith: Knowing that the second apron was coming your way and you would have to learn how to navigate that, did that play a factor in some of the recent hires like Matt Tellem?

Josh Bartelstein: Yeah, we’re trying to build a world-class organization on both business and basketball. So we’ve made a lot of changes on both sides. Stacey’s new, we have a new CMO, we’re adding to our partnerships team, so we’re always trying to be the best business.

Same thing with basketball, and how do we get our cap and strategy to be elite? I think Matt Tellem was really good. We made some changes in scouting, we’ve added some physical therapists. So you’ve gotta have really good talent. I always say for us, we may miss on the talent, we’ll never miss on the person.

So the No. 1 thing for me is adding really good people who match the vision and cultures that Mat, James and I want, and then we’ll make sure that we have the talent piece with it. And I think you’ve seen over the last, again, 16 months an increase of bringing really good people in who have fit our culture and doing really good things.

Gerald Bourguet: What are you personally most proud of that you’ve done during your time here so far?

Josh Bartelstein: Great question. I would say, it’s funny, we had seven interns this summer, and their last day was last Friday, and I met with all seven of them, and three of them started crying in my office — not ’cause I was mean, but because of how much they loved the experience here.

Again, it goes to the culture piece. It may seem cliche to the people listening, but we mean it. And the fact that I know that high ranking people here will like it, right? They’re compensated, they can craft strategy, they love coming to work, but when you have interns who are only here for two or three months and enjoy the experience that much that they have tears saying ‘thank you,’ then we’re doing something right.

Because this job is not your life. Like, we all have amazing things we do outside of here. But if I can make this a place where you love coming and it doesn’t feel like a 9-5 job, because in sports — and you guys know this best — it’s definitely not a 9-5 job.

So that’s what I care about is to see people who are literally here for two or three months and trying to figure out where they want to go on their life’s journey and are in tears because they’re so happy being here, then we’re doing something right. And as I said, if we keep doing that, with the talent we have in this organization in both business and basketball, we’re gonna do amazing things.

Greg Esposito: How do you make sure that mindset translates across the board to the Mercury and Valley Suns as well?

Josh Bartelstein: It’s one of the most important things. We talk about the pedestals, the Mercury and Suns and now the Valley Suns coming are on the same pedestal. When you guys go walk around see this new Mercury facility, you’re gonna say, “Wow, that’s a pretty good pedestal.” But they have the same resources. We added to our Mercury team both in basketball and in business, getting Nick U’Ren to come, Nate Tibbetts, adding to our business staff, more ticket sellers, the huge partnership.

So you can’t just talk about it, you gotta be about it, and that’s where, to me, the All-Star Game was the culmination of that. When people came here and saw the investment we made both financially but also resources and our time, like, yeah, the pedestals are the same. I mean people kept saying, “This is better than an NBA All-Star weekend.” So I think it’s the investment, it’s people seeing it, and we’ve made waves. People are talking about the Phoenix Mercury, and I’m excited about that and I can’t wait for the second half of the year coming up.”

Greg Esposito: What can people expect with the Valley Suns this fall?

Josh Bartelstein: Yeah, well, I think we’re gonna have the best facilities, right? So the arms race in the G League is amazing resources and facilities and coaches. They’re gonna play at Mullett Arena, which will be as good as any G League arena you could possibly find, and we’re gonna use it as really a ground for training, development for both business and basketball.

So to be able to have our two-ways and young guys go play down there and be able to have myself, Bud and James drive 15 minutes and go see it, to be able to develop talent on the business side, and we’re gonna be able to try out new ticket strategies and try out new pick-and-roll coverages. Like, that’s what that is for. But the closeness to it, the proximity matters. I think we’ll be an active participant in using it for both of those things.

Lindsey Smith: What did you see through the draft evaluation process when you were looking at who you wanted to bring into the organization, and what did you see from Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro at NBA Summer League?

Josh Bartelstein: Everyone says, like, “Hey, we got two guys in our top-15.” Every team says that. For us Ryan and Oso were two guys we targeted. Like, when the draft started, we said, “If we can get those two guys, it’ll be a home run draft.” And we only had one pick, so for us to be able to move down six spots, 22 to 28, get future seconds, which was critical with our lack of assets, and still get Ryan, it was something we wanted.

Ryan came here to Phoenix to work out, he was really good. As good of a basketball player as he is, he’s an amazing person. Like, he’s a really, really good young man, and he works his tail off. He’s always, always in the gym. And I think for us, that athleticism, size, defensive versatility — that’s what we need, right? Like, if you checked the box of what we’re missing, it’s him. It’s a lot to ask him to go play 20 minutes a game in year one, but we’re gonna develop him. He’ll have a lot of opportunities to play.

And Oso is someone that came here twice to work out and we loved him. His passing, his playmaking, incredibly high IQ. He’s today’s NBA big, and I think with Nurk and Mason, he’ll learn a ton too, ’cause they have a similar archetype player-wise. And that’s developing them. Like, we have to hit on the margins in our draft.

Everyone gives grades, but I feel like for what our goal was, to get two guys we wanted to fill two positional gaps, and get two more — really, three second-round picks, we used one of those to get Oso — but get two more second-round picks to use in future transactions checked a lot of boxes for us.”

Gerald Bourguet: At the very top, you guys have been very collaborative with your head coaches. Bringing Mike Budenholzer in, what are you looking forward to seeing and what should Suns fans be looking forward to with their new coach?

Josh Bartelstein: He is awesome. I mean, he’s the real deal. We’ve become very, very close over the three months. It’s crazy it’s been that fast. He’s so detail-oriented. He thinks Phoenix Suns all day, every day, from the biggest things of where is Kevin gonna get the ball to the smallest things of how do we maximize our two-way guys’ days? Like, he’s just always thinking Suns basketball, and he’s a basketball savant. The way he uses players, the success he’s had, the wins, you’re talking about one of the best coaches in the NBA.

And he’s a great person too. I think he’ll be great in the community. He’s so happy to be here that he can’t wait to get started. So just seeing how he thinks has been cool, about the things he values, how we want to play. We’ve had so many discussions. He was a huge part of the recruiting. I mean, Tyus Jones said it, Bud was a big part of why Tyus picked here. How Bud has gotten players paid, how Bud uses guys, how he optimizes them, so all of our free agents, all of our guys, Bud has a say in it, ’cause he’s the head coach and we’re really, really lucky to have him.

Greg Esposito: I’m the hard-hitting journalist of the group, so here in the new team member campus with all its food options, is there a certain snack that you requested when you built this facility?

Josh Bartelstein: I love your questions. I’m trying to be healthy right now, so right now I’m on a salad kick. I love salad. That’s like a terrible answer, but I’m having salads for lunch every day. ‘Cause I always have dinner meetings or, like, drinks with people, and it’s not good for my lifestyle or being healthy. So I’m trying to be healthy.

That said, there’s everything you could possibly want here, and you can always come here for lunch….The kitchen here has been a huge hit. Lots of good options. You can have burgers, chicken fingers, French fries, sandwiches. Once the season season starts back up, I’ll be stressed out and eating unhealthy, but for right now in August, I gotta do salads.”

Lindsey Smith: Okay, but if you did have a guilty pleasure snack, what would it be?

Josh Bartelstein: Oh, I’m a big cookie [guy]. Chocolate chip cookie, way to my heart. If you guys want to get me anything, chocolate chip cookies.

Gerald Bourguet: Last question, we know that you can’t speak too much about the new City edition Suns jerseys yet, but is there any teaser that you’re allowed to give?

Josh Bartelstein: Yeah, I’m excited for them. I think we’ve had such a great run of City editions. I think it’s Zach Lowe who does his rankings, like last year we were — were we one last year? [The Suns were fourth.] Yeah, so we like being in that top one, two or three. But our marketing team is awesome, always thinking about innovation.

Our whole new brand strategy for this year, you’re gonna see a lot of new things tied to the City edition, tied to just how we think about the Suns and the Mercury, what’s coming too. So I would just tease that there’s a lot of new coming, and the dynamic brand having a humble swagger to us, ’cause that’s what we think we should have, and we have the best fans, so I’m looking forward to showing ’em all those things….It’s all coming, I promise. It’s been actively worked on right above me right now.