Larry Fitzgerald comments on sitting in with Suns front office interviews

When ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Phoenix Suns were looking into making Jeff Bower a part of their front office, one of the standouts of the report was Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald sitting in on some of the meetings.

While Fitzgerald has more than earned the respect as one of the legends of Valley sports, it was puzzling for someone with no direct Suns affiliation to be around front office interviews.

While joining 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Bickley & Marotta on Monday, Fitzgerald gave more context to the why.

He compared it to similar situations where he’s been around top-level decision-makers.

“I’ve shadowed Magic Johnson, I’ve shadowed Donald Trump, I’ve shadowed numerous CEOs of Fortune 500 companies all across the country,” he said. “I love learning. I love just trying to see what makes everybody tick and I’m just a guy who likes to learn so this is no different from anything else I’ve done. It’s right on par with that.”

Fitzgerald, of course, has a relationship with Suns owner Robert Sarver.

“He’s drastically misunderstood. I love Mr. Sarver,” Fitzgerald said of Sarver in December. “I spent a lot of time with him. I can’t think of anybody who I trust more than him. He’s one of those guys, he’ll look you in your eye, he’ll shake your hand. He would go out of his way to help anybody he knows. Once you know him … it’s easy to love him.”

Fitzgerald went on to say Monday “nobody gets to see him like I see him.”

The 35-year-old was also with Sarver and other members of the front office in March to watch likely top-3 pick Ja Morant out of Murray State.

There was speculation that Fitzgerald’s time around the team and Sarver could mean that an ownership stake is coming but he shot that down. For now.

“I don’t know if that’s an option or not,” he said. “I don’t know. It would be great to have a minority position but I don’t know. We’ll see. Maybe in the future.”

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