Former Phoenix Suns star, Dan Majerle, was fired from GCU back in March, and now he is suing the university for severance money he feels he is due.
Well, this escalated quickly. After GCU fired former Phoenix Suns in a somewhat surprising move, the situation has gotten a bit nasty. According to the Arizona Republic, Majerle is suing his former employer for what most people sue for…more money.
According to the complaint:
"“GCU has already begun a campaign to disparage Majerle as part of its effort to avoid its severance obligation to Majerle by creating false and pretextual reasons for Majerle’s termination that are not ‘Cause’ for termination under the Agreement and that were never asserted during his employment as potential grounds for termination. In furtherance of this effort, the President of GCU has disparaged Majerle in conversations with at least one of the GCU player/family. This disparagement of Majerle is an independent breach of the Employment Agreement.”"
Furthermore, GCU, when they fired Majerle, said they wanted to move in a different direction. About that, the complaint has more complaining to do:
"“[Interim Athletic Director Jamie] Boggs did not give any reason for the termination [on his phone call] and did not tell Majerle he was being terminated for cause. Boggs said the university decided that it was moving in another direction and said she was sorry. A decision to ‘move in another direction’ is not grounds for Cause under the Employment Agreement.”"
That’s when GCU clapped back:
"“GCU was surprised to learn through members of the media that former coach Dan Majerle has apparently filed a lawsuit against the University. Rather than serving the University with a copy of his complaint, Coach Majerle appears instead to have provided copies of his complaint to members of the media. The University hired Coach Majerle when he had no prior head coaching experience and no college coaching experience with the greatest hope and belief that he would lead the men’s basketball program for 20-plus years.”"
So basically, here is the recap, said in a very 2020 style:
Majerle was like, “Oh, hell nah you can’t fire me. You ain’t even got a reason. You owe me some money.”
Then GCU be like, “Fool, we paid you when there we didn’t have no business paying you. And you can’t even come talk to me to my face. You gotta go run to the media. Pshhh. Get outta here.”
Or something like that. Is quarantine over yet? I’m losing it.
GCU has since hired former Vanderbilt head coach, Bryce Drew, which is an insanely good hire. Drew, who was fired in his own bizarre fashion, is much better than I thought GCU could pull off.
Time will tell if Majerle will get any severance and if Drew will be good. For now, it serves as some Phoenix Suns-adjacent basketball drama during this dearth of basketball news.