Phoenix Suns CEO Tells About Loads of Job Offers, Then Quits

The first openly gay senior executive of a men’s professional sports team, Phoenix Suns president and CEO Rick Welts, announced his resignation today on the heels of telling The Advocate he's been plied with job offers.

“I probably have had more job offers in the last five months than I ever have in my life from the most unexpected places, people who actually found me a more interesting candidate because of what I had chosen to do,” Welts told  The Advocate earlier this week.

But the NBA executive isn't leaving the Suns for another job, he toldTheArizona Republic. Instead, Welts said he's moving to Sacramento to be closer to his partner.

Welts told the Republic that coming out helped lead to the decision to leave the Suns, which he joined as an executive in 2002.

"Leaving one of the best jobs in sports to go figure out what's next is something I never would've done a year ago or five years ago or 10 years ago," Welts said. "Personally, there is a level of confidence and that I can figure it out and the future is going to be terrific. I'm just in a different place."