Rocky, the beloved mascot of the Denver Nuggets, is suing the team’s owner.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Denver District Court, the man inside the mountain lion suit, Drake Solomon, alleged that he was fired after he took time off to heal from a hip injury, in violation of disability protection laws.
Solomon is seeking unspecified damages from Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets basketball team.
Solomon became Rocky in 2021, following in the footsteps of his father, who was the original Rocky more than 30 years ago. But in the 2022-23 NBA season, the younger Solomon was diagnosed with avascular necrosis, a condition that causes bone tissue to die as a result of damage to blood vessels and a lack of blood supply.
He underwent surgery to deal with the condition and returned to work as Rocky 10 days later. However, he was still dealing with hip pain, the lawsuit says. In the 2023-2024 NBA season, doctors determined that Solomon needed a hip replacement.
But when Solomon told his supervisors, they said they would “be holding tryouts for his position due to his record of impairment and their lack of confidence in his health.”
Solomon recovered from the hip replacement quickly, then returned to a “hostile work environment” and news that the Nuggets would hold tryouts for the next Rocky because Soloman had “burned them last time,” the lawsuit says.
The team fired Solomon shortly after the tryouts, in August 2024. The termination violated his rights under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, the lawsuit alleges.
His termination was a blow to a family that has been deeply connected with Rocky for decades, said his attorney, Siddhartha Rathod. He likened the termination to firing a person for going on maternity leave.
Besides dancing and entertaining the crowd at Nuggets games, Solomon attended charity events, toy drives and youth basketball programs. Drake Solomon began his career with the Nuggets in 2012 as a “trampoline dunk artist” and part of the “promo squad.” And when his father retired in 2021, Drake was the only person invited to perform in a closed-door tryout before he was given the job.
“His goal with each appearance was simple: to leave people smiling, inspired, and proud to be part of the Denver Nuggets community,” the law firm said in a news release.
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