Josh Primo had led a relatively low-profile NBA existence through the first 15 months of his career.
He was an unproven prospect playing for perhaps the NBA’s most spotlight-averse organization.
Until this week the most attention the talented guard from Toronto received was on draft night in the summer of 2021 when the San Antonio Spurs went off the board and selected the then 18-year-old 12th overall in a loaded class, well above where most had him projected to be taken after his freshman season at Alabama.
But in a jarring turn-of-events, Primo and the Spurs are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons: A lawsuit filed in Texas Thursday alleging he exposed himself to a female team psychologist as many as nine different times, that the Spurs knew about it, and that there were no consequences. The suit also alludes to similar behaviours in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League and last week in Minneapolis, the latter of which allegedly prompted the Spurs to finally cut ties with the young prospect.
Things began unravelling for Primo when the now 19-year-old was waived by the Spurs last Friday, barely 10 days into his second season. The move was so unusual that Primo now holds the distinction of having the shortest career with the team that drafted him by any lottery pick in NBA history. It was a costly choice by San Antonio too, as Primo’s contract is guaranteed through the 2023-24 season for a total of $8.4 million.
The details that led to the move have been a pressing question ever since. The Spurs have a reputation as one of the most discriminating teams in the NBA when it comes to vetting players and valuing character. That they drafted Primo so high — he was widely projected to be a late first-round or even second-round pick — was viewed as a testament to Primo’s off-court make-up. Primo’s hometown Toronto Raptors — another team that typically puts considerable weight on intangibles beyond skills and talent — was another franchise that was high on him.
His story was inspiring. His mother, Sandra, died after a lengthy battle with cancer 10 years ago this month, when Primo was just nine years old. A period of instability followed — Primo attended three high schools in four years — but he came onto the scene as a prospect while playing for Canada’s U-19 national team at the World Championships in Greece as a 16-year-old. He’s been on the national team radar ever since and has said that representing Canada at the Olympics was a career goal.
No one saw this coming.
"I was shocked. Shocked," says Toronto Raptors forward Justin Champagnie, who trained daily with Primo in their preparations for the 2021 draft and has kept in touch since. "Obviously people go through things in life, they have triggers or whatever. But he was a great person and he’s still a great kid."
Hours after being waived Primo released a statement alluding to his own past trauma and needing to work on his mental health. Soon after came reports that the Spurs guard had exposed himself to "multiple women" including a former Spurs employee.
It was obvious that there was going be another shoe to drop and on Thursday it fell with a thud in the form of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Dr. Hilary Cauthen, the Spurs' former sports psychologist, naming both Primo and the team as defendants.
So far Dr. Cauthen is the only victim who has come forward through her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, who earlier this year represented 24 women in a suit in which they accused now-Clevland Browns quarterback DeShaun Watson of sexually assaulting them during massage therapy sessions.
"I want to say this too," said Buzbee at his media conference at his offices in Houston. "I'm calling for anyone who has been a victim of Joshua Primo to reach out to us."
The allegations are deeply concerning but also highly unusual in that they occurred — according to the filing — in multiple professional counselling sessions between Dr. Cauthen and Primo that "typically took place in private medical training rooms at the AT&T Center in San Antonio as well as various sports arenas during away games, as part of Primo’s standard pre-game routine." The exposures — nine in total — began in December of 2021, according to the suit, and "happened on numerous occasions and grew progressively more extreme," although the nature of the progression isn’t described.
In the suit Dr. Cauthen says she requested a meeting with Spurs general manager Brian Wright in January of 2022, making clear "the purpose of the meeting," but that after several postponements by Wright she didn’t get a chance to meet with the Spurs executive until March 21. They talked about a possible plan of action, Dr. Cauthen says in her suit, but nothing was done and in the meantime, while meeting with Primo "in a public setting" the Spurs player exposed himself to her again. She refused to meet with Primo again.
The filing says that Dr. Cauthen met with Wright once more in April and "expressed her frustration and concern" that no action had been taken since their meeting in March. Soon after Dr. Cauthen says she met with Spurs lawyers and was advised that Primo would continue participating in team activities and that she could work from home if it made her more comfortable. Subsequently, she says she was not invited to attend Las Vegas Summer League with the Spurs and in August San Antonio chose not to renew her contract, ending what was a dream job after just 12 months.
In essence, Dr. Cauthen is suing Primo for damages — the value of which will be set by the court — for repeatedly having his genitals showing during their sessions and the Spurs for not taking immediate steps to address it and ultimately choosing to end their employment relationship with her. The allegations have not been heard before a court of law but Dr. Cauthen will also be filing a criminal complaint, according to the suit.
In a statement to Sportsnet, Primo's lawyer William J. Briggs said the suit is financially motivated and unfounded, implying that Primo, 19, is being victimized by a 40-year-old professional "in an act of betrayal."
The statement from Briggs continues: "Dr. Cauthen’s allegations are either a complete fabrication, a gross embellishment or utter fantasy. Josh Primo never intentionally exposed himself to her or anyone else and was not even aware that his private parts were visible outside of his workout shorts."
Briggs also says — on behalf of Primo — that Dr. Cauthen never informed Primo of the purported exposure: "Dr. Cauthen was Mr. Primo’s mental health support provider and a therapist who Mr. Primo trusted. She is much older than Mr. Primo, with many years of experience as a sports psychologist. It is baffling why she did not bother to tell her that his private parts were visible underneath his shorts."
From Dr. Cauthen’s point of view, Primo engaged in his conduct "intentionally, knowingly and willfully," according to the suit, and his actions cost her a dream job and led to ongoing mental suffering.
"The organization I worked for has failed me," Dr. Cauthen said while reading from a statement at Thursday's press conference. "It took the Spurs 10 months to do the right thing, that’s too long."
Meanwhile, 15 months after Josh Primo's NBA career started in relative anonymity, it's now hanging in the balance, cloaked in infamy.
