The investigation into alleged workplace misconduct within the Mavericks‘ business offices, which began seven months ago, has concluded. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the Mavs and the NBA have come to an agreement that team owner Mark Cuban will donate $10MM to organizations that “promote women in leadership roles and combat domestic violence.”
As Wojnarowski observes, the maximum fine that the NBA could have levied upon Cuban and the Mavs was $2.5MM. The agreement between the two sides will ensure that four times that amount will go to organizations dedicated to preventing what happened in the Mavs’ business offices from happening elsewhere.
In addition to the $10MM in donations from Cuban, the Mavericks will also be required to provide the NBA office with quarterly updates, report any significant employee misconduct to the NBA, and implement more extensive training programs related to sexual harassment and misconduct, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Investigators also recommend the Mavs increase the number of women on their staff, expand their HR department, and institute clear protocols for investigating workplace misconduct.
As for the investigation’s actual findings, Wojnarowski says (via Twitter) that the Mavs were found to have “serious workplace misconduct by former and current employees,” along with “improper or ineffective management.”
Claims that former Mavs president and CEO Terdema Ussery was responsible for inappropriate comments and/or touching were substantiated by 15 current or former employees, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter). Ussery was described in SI.com’s initial report as having earned a reputation as a “serial sexual harasser.”
According to Brandon George of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link), investigators found no evidence that Cuban was aware of Ussery’s misconduct, as none of the 215 witnesses interviewed during the probe said they informed Cuban of Ussery’s behavior.
The NBA’s statement on the investigation is available here, while the full report can be found here.
This is a bad, nasty plate of crow that Cuban has to eat on this situation. Beyond disgusting what was going on for years in the Mavs FO. He is lucky that they do not take away the team from him and they let him keep it only because he is transparent with the NBA investigation. He still needs to find ways to do more to make it up. Reading that report is sickening. Detailing it would get me censored.