That Didn't Take Long; Rick Welts Finds a Job

The NBA hasn't lost its highest-ranking openly gay executive after all.

Rick Welts left his job as president and CEO of the Phoenix Suns earlier this month to be closer to his partner in Sacramento, where he's already landed a new job.

Welts will become president and chief operating officer for the Golden State Warriors, which coincidentally had an opening. The Arizona Republic reports that the Suns' leadership helped lobby for Welts getting hired.

"I had been looking forward to doing different things but the opportunity with this team and this market worked so well for me geographically," Welts told the Republic. "I was not able to pass that up."

Welts had toldThe Advocate that job offers were pouring in after he came out in a front-page interview with The New York Times in May. And he'd mentioned the possibility of writing a book after leaving the Suns to be closer to his partner and his two children.

Welts is actually the highest-ranking executive in all of men's team sports to acknowledge publicly that he's gay.