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Latest On Mark Cuban, Mavericks Investigation

February 21st, 2018 at 8:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks may be in danger of having a first-round pick taken away in the wake of their workplace misconduct allegations, writes Matt Mosley of The Dallas Morning News. With a series of high-profile sex scandals dominating the news in recent months, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will want to make a strong statement against the behavior that was reportedly taking place in the Mavericks’ team office, Mosley reasons.

Mosley suggests owner Mark Cuban may have to remove himself from the team for a while in an act of contrition as a way to prevent the draft pick from being lost. He adds that “massive changes” will likely be needed in the organization to make sure the behavior that resulted in the allegations is never repeated.

There’s more news today out of Dallas:

The Mavericks have hired two independent investigators from the Krutoy Law Firm in New York to examine the organization, the team announced in an email. Evan Krutoy spent more than 20 years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and served as Acting Deputy Bureau Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit. Anne Milgrim is a former Attorney General of New Jersey and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law. They will be conducting confidential interviews with all Mavericks staff members, along with former employees who want to add their input to the investigation, the email states.
Cuban tells Tim MacMahon of ESPN it was a “horrible mistake in hindsight” not to fire former Mavs.com reporter Earl K. Sneed after two domestic violence incidents. Cuban decided to terminate Sneed in advance of the Sports Illustrated report after learning the “gruesome details” involving a 2011 domestic dispute. The magazine shared a Dallas police report saying that Sneed’s girlfriend at the time suffered a fractured right wrist in the altercation and had bruises on her arms and chest. “I want to be clear: I’m not putting the blame on anybody else,” Cuban said. “It came down to my final decision that I made.”
Cuban’s reputation of being thoroughly involved with the team makes it difficult to believe he was unaware of what was going on in the main office, writes Kevin Sherrington of The Dallas Morning News. That’s especially true in the case of former executive Terdema Ussery, Sherrington adds, whose alleged conduct was a key part of the Sports Illustrated story. The columnist notes that the Mavericks conducted their own investigation of Ussery in 1998, two years before Cuban bought the team, which resulted in new guidelines on interoffice conduct.

Mark Cuban Fined $600K For Tanking Comments

February 21st, 2018 at 2:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA has fined Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600K for suggesting that his team could benefit by losing games for the rest of the season, tweets Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.

Cuban’s comments came during a recent appearance on Julius Erving’s House Call with Dr. J podcast. The outspoken owner admitted to telling his players that accumulating losses would have long-term benefits for the organization.

“I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night and here we are, you know, we weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option,’” Cuban said. “[Commissioner] Adam [Silver] would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we’re not going to tank again, this was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that’s the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability.”

The Mavericks are third in our current Reverse Standings with an 18-40 record, but are locked in a tight race for the highest lottery picks. They are just a half-game behind the Suns and Hawks for the league’s worst record, with nine teams having at least 36 losses already.

The NBA has long been sensitive about public comments on tanking and has made changes to the draft that will take effect next season. The new format will reduce the benefit of losing, giving the league’s worst team a 14% chance at the top pick, while the sixth-worst team has a 9% shot. Right now, the team with the worst record has a 25% chance to land the first choice.

The fine continues a horrible day for Cuban, who has been explaining how the Mavericks became the target of an extensive workplace misconduct scandal.

Mavs Investigating Alleged Workplace Misconduct

February 21st, 2018 at 8:37am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of an SI.com report detailing a corrosive workplace culture within the Mavericks’ organization, the team has hired outside counsel to “conduct a thorough and independent investigation” into the allegations and into the franchise’s workplace practices and policies. The NBA has also issued a statement calling the alleged behavior “completely unacceptable” and indicating that the league “will closely monitor the independent investigation into this matter.”

In their report for SI.com, Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther describe an “Animal House“-type culture in Dallas. The allegations outlined in the story focus on former Mavs president and CEO Terdema Ussery and former Mavs.com beat writer Earl K. Sneed, who was fired on Tuesday, according to the team. However, the reported workplace misconduct isn’t limited to those two men. As Wertheim and Luther write, accounts from their sources “paint a picture of a corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior.”

One former female Mavs staffer tells SI.com that she never had an issue with any of the team’s players — the club’s actual locker room is described as a “refuge,” while the business offices represented more of a “locker room culture,” in the worst sense of the term. According to SI.com’s account, Ussery earned a reputation as a “serial sexual harasser” who allegedly made inappropriate remarks to – and publicly fondled – female employees.

Sneed, meanwhile, was involved in two domestic disputes, including one with a fellow Mavs employee he was dating at the time. Although the Mavs weren’t entirely in the dark about Sneed’s behavior, the team indicated in its statement on Tuesday night that it was “misled” by an employee (Sneed wasn’t specifically named) about a prior domestic violence incident, resulting in his dismissal.

In a statement of his own issued to The Dallas Morning News, Sneed says the domestic disputes were inaccurately described in SI.com’s report, but admits that he underwent counseling after both altercations. Sneed says he also “signed a contract stating that I would not have one-on-one contact or fraternize with female employees” after the second incident. His assault record prevented him from traveling to Canada with the Mavs when the club played in Toronto.

According to Wertheim and Luther, their sources made it clear that team owner Mark Cuban was not involved in any way in sexual harassment himself, though most found it hard to imagine that such a hands-on owner would be entirely unaware of what was happening. For his part, Cuban insists that he didn’t know what was going on, explaining that he’s more involved in the basketball operations side of the Mavs, deferring to the CEO and HR in business operations.

“This is all new to me,” Cuban told SI.com. “The only awareness I have is because I heard you guys were looking into some things…. Based off of what I’ve read here, we just fired our HR person. I don’t have any tolerance for what I’ve read.

“It’s wrong. It’s abhorrent. It’s not a situation we condone,” Cuban continued. “I can’t tell you how many times, particularly since all this [#MeToo] stuff has been coming out recently I asked our HR director, ‘Do we have a problem? Do we have any issues I have to be aware of?’ And the answer was no.”

The details in SI.com’s report reflect poorly on the Mavericks and on the NBA as a whole, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see more firings or policy changes occur as a result of the independent investigation.

Cuban: Losing Is Mavs’ ‘Best Option’ For Rest Of Season

February 20th, 2018 at 9:23am CST by Luke Adams

With his team in a rebuilding phase, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has addressed the topic of tanking frequently during the last two seasons, and did so again during a recent appearance on Julius Erving’s House Call with Dr. J podcast. As detailed by The Dallas Morning News, Cuban admitted that he recently told the Mavs it would be in the team’s best long-term interest to keep piling up losses this season.

“I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night and here we are, you know, we weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option,'” Cuban said. “[Commissioner] Adam [Silver] would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we’re not going to tank again, this was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that’s the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability.”

One of six teams with an NBA-low 18 wins so far this season, the Mavericks are out of the playoff hunt and are currently engaged in a race for lottery positioning. A brief hot streak during the season’s final two months could ultimately drop Dallas by several spots in this year’s draft and cost the club a chance at a franchise player, so it makes sense that Cuban would make the case for the merits of losing.

Still, the Mavericks owner has indicated in the past that the idea of tanking leaves a bad taste in his mouth. After declaring early in the 2016/17 season that the Mavs had no interest in tanking, Cuban admitted at season’s end that his club had tanked down the stretch, once it was clear the playoffs were out of reach.

After the Mavs got off to a 2-10 start this season, Cuban expressed a similar sentiment, adamantly insisting that they wouldn’t tank — at least until they were out of contention for the postseason. At 18-40, Dallas hasn’t technically been eliminated yet, but the team has no real chance to catch the eighth-seeded Pelicans (31-26). So, while the players themselves won’t try to lose, we should expect to see the Mavs playing their veterans less and their youngsters more in the coming weeks.

The NBA will implement changes to the draft lottery in 2019 that will reduce the odds of the league’s three worst teams landing a top-three pick. In the new format, the NBA’s worst team will have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick, while the sixth-worst team will have a 9% chance. Under the current format, those odds are 25% and 6.3% respectively, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts the race to the bottom for the Mavs and the NBA’s other cellar-dwellers this spring.

Knicks Notes: Hardaway, Ntilikina, Smith, Kanter

January 6th, 2018 at 7:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Tim Hardaway Jr. was a limited participant in practice today and is optimistic about returning during a six-game road trip that starts January 18, relays Marc Berman of The New York Post. Hardaway has been sidelined for five weeks by a stress reaction in his left leg, and the Knicks have fallen below .500 without him as an outside scoring threat.

“I was itching to get back for Christmas, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen,” Hardaway said. “I was itching to go home against Miami [Friday], my hometown. It was painful not to be there. I had those two games circled on the calendar.’’

Hardaway was New York’s top free agent addition of the offseason, signing a $71MM deal over four years. He was an important contributor to the team’s fast start, averaging 17.8 points over 21 games before the injury.

There’s more tonight out of New York:

Point guards Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith may be linked throughout their careers because of their proximity in the draft, but they are different types of players, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. Ntilikina is a defensive standout who has struggled with his shot and ballhandling, and some scouts believe he will eventually be moved to off guard. Smith is outstanding on offense, but has shortcomings on defense. They will meet for the first time Sunday when the Mavericks host the Knicks. “That part of him being aggressive, that’s always interesting to watch,” Ntilikina said of Smith. “That’s the part I have to explore in my game. Something I can learn and take [from him], as I said he’s a great player offensively.”
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is denying a New York Times report that his professed interest in Ntilikina before the draft was a ruse to get the Knicks to pass on Smith, Bondy adds in a separate story. “Not a stunt at all,” Cuban wrote in an email. “We like Frank quite a bit. If Dennis had been selected there was a very good chance we would have taken Frank.” Smith had an awkward pre-draft meeting with the Knicks, Bondy recalls, and he refused to hold an individual workout or share his medical records with the team.
After a few months in New York, Enes Kanter feels like he wants to retire as a Knick, relays Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Kanter has excelled since being acquired from the Thunder in the Carmelo Anthony trade, but he has an $18.4MM player option that could determine his future with the team. He said he hasn’t decided if he will exercise it.

Union Leaders For Players, Refs Meet Over Tensions

December 26th, 2017 at 1:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

Escalating tensions between players and officials led to a recent meeting between the leaders of their unions, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Lee Seham, general counsel for the National Basketball Referees Association, called players association executive director Michele Roberts to discuss several recent incidents, including ejections involving high-profile players such as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, who has been tossed from three games this season. Also, official Courtney Kirkland received a week’s suspension after a head-butting altercation with Shaun Livingston.

Seham and Roberts talked for more than two hours about a wide range of issues, including the referees’ stance that the league has allowed too much leniency to players to verbally attack them. Roberts said players believe the refs have become disrespectful on the court and get particularly upset when officials hold up their hands in an effort to silence them.

“Our players also complained about being ignored, told to ‘shut up,’ told to ‘move’ or, in extreme circumstances, hit with a technical,” Roberts said. “There have been four or five occasions when a player has gone to say, ‘Hey, what’s up with that?’ and the official holds his hand up like a stop sign, like, ‘I don’t have time to talk to you.’ … Lee [Seham] told me, ‘That’s what they’re trained to do.'”

Roberts and Seham will conduct an informal meeting with a small group of players and referees during All-Star weekend to further discuss the topic. Roberts hopes getting everyone in the same room will improve communication.

“What is going to make a difference is to have our players sit down and discuss their grievances with officials,” she said. “They clearly can’t do that on the court. We need to do it at a time when there’s no game on the line, or you’re not thinking, ‘What’s he or she going to do to me in the next quarter if I complain?’ We need to sit down over a cup of coffee or even a can of beer and get some things off everyone’s chests and hear the other side’s perspective. We talked about this a couple of years ago. I thought it would be interesting. Now I think it’s something that’s necessary.”

The NBA has altered its referee management program since Adam Silver took over as commissioner, Wojnarowski adds, but its working relationship with officials has worsened. Emails reveal that the officials union has challenged the league office on several issues, including what it considers to be “intimidating behavior” from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

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Mark Cuban Not Interested In Owning NFL Team

December 19th, 2017 at 7:29pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Carolina Panthers are up for sale and while many with interest in owning an NFL franchise will line up to try and take the reins of the team, don’t expect Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to be among them.

“Not interested at all in any NFL franchise,” Cuban tells Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. The Shark Tank star later added, “Why would I buy an NFL team if I think the league is in decline?”

In order to buy an NFL team, Cuban would be required to sell the Mavericks (per NFL rules). That’s not something that’s likely to happen anytime soon.

“There’s no team I would want other than the Mavericks, certainly no football team in the universe,” Cuban said. “There’s not even a close second.”

“I love the Mavs. I love Dallas. I mean, Charlotte’s a great city, but there’s nothing I don’t like here — other than losing right now. I would never turn my back on the city of Dallas.”

Cuban has been critical of the NFL’s future with regard to players’ safety and he believes buying a team would go against his strong stance on the sport.

“Like I’ve always said, Dallas has given me so much. And what am I going to say to my son and his friends or my daughter and her friends: ‘Oh, yeah: Football’s dangerous for you, but I bought a football team…I know I’m a hypocrite from time to time, but I really, really, really try not to be,” Cuban added.

Mark Cuban Talks Rebuilding, NBA Vs. NFL, Celtics

December 7th, 2017 at 12:04pm CST by Luke Adams

It has been a tough season for Mark Cuban‘s Mavericks so far, as the team currently ranks last in the Western Conference with a 7-18 record. Still, that doesn’t mean Cuban’s plan for Dirk Nowitzki has changed it all — he still envisions Nowitzki spending as many more seasons as he wants with the Mavs, finishing his career in Dallas.

“I still wouldn’t trade Dirk even if they offered me three No. 1’s,” Cuban said with a smile to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald this week. “Four, yes. But three, no.”

In addition to cracking jokes about his longtime star, Cuban also weighed in on a few more noteworthy topics. The Mavs owner talked about the rebuilding process for his club, which he hopes doesn’t last long, and pointed to the Celtics as a franchise worth emulating during that rebuild. He also revisited a topic he has discussed in the past, exploring why the NBA has been on the upswing in recent years, while other sports (most notably the NFL) haven’t had as much success gaining new fans and viewers.

Here are a few highlights from Cuban’s comments to Bulpett, whose piece is worth checking out in full:

On why the NBA is seeing increased popularity and TV ratings:

“There’s a confluence of a couple of things. No. 1, our demographic keeps on getting younger. The NFL and baseball, they keep on getting older. And I think what we’re doing with (the video game) NBA 2K is brilliant. And in the bigger scheme of things, in terms of building fans for the future, what do you want your kids to play? Of all the sports out there, do you want to go to a baseball game, or do want to watch your kid play basketball? Do you want to worry about him [playing] a whole football game, or do you want to watch your kid play basketball? Do you want him to get healthy from running the court, or do you want to watch him play football and worry about collisions?”

On the aspects of the Celtics’ rebuild that he admires and wants to emulate:

“I think the hallmark of what they did is how they get their teams to play hard. That’s really what we look to emulate more than anything else. I mean, they’ve done a great job in the draft, but there’s as much luck as anything else there, and things have got to fall in your lap one way or the other. So the way it’s worked out, the biggest takeaway that we’ve seen in looking at the Celts — and we’ve done a lot of deals with them, so we’re close to them — really, more than anything, it’s just how hard Brad gets his teams to play.”

On the Mavericks’ own rebuild:

“We just started last year. We weren’t going into last year thinking we were rebuilding, but [Andrew] Bogut got hurt and Deron Williams was hurt. We started off 3-17 or something ridiculous, and until we went into tank mode once we got eliminated from the playoffs, we were just outside the playoffs. So we have just started the rebuild, and hopefully it won’t be long.”

And-Ones: Ayton, Thunder Trades, Wagering, Ball

December 4th, 2017 at 8:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Arizona freshman center DeAndre Ayton could be the No. 1 overall pick in June, according to Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. The 7’1” Ayton has proven to be a highly productive for the otherwise disappointing Wildcats, averaging 20.4 PPG, 11.4 RPG and 1.4 BPG in his first eight college games. He has a 7-foot-5 wingspan and has shown a high basketball IQ, Brigham continues. At worst, Ayton should be a top-three lock, Brigham adds.

In other news involving the league:

The trade packages the Knicks and Pacers received from the Thunder in blockbuster deals this offseason have proven to be far better than expected, as ESPN’s Kevin Pelton notes. Center Enes Kanter, the best player the Knicks got back in the Carmelo Anthony trade, is a good fit as Kristaps Porzingis‘ frontcourt partner, while Porzingis has thrived as a No. 1 option in Pelton’s analysis. Victor Oladipo has actually outperformed Paul George in his expanded role with Indiana, according to Pelton’s metrics. The other player the Pacers received in the deal, center Domantas Sabonis, has improved sharply while playing more often in the post than he did in Oklahoma City, Pelton adds.
The league and several owners have positioned themselves to cash in on expanded betting on its games, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst examines in an in-depth piece. The league would prefer changes in current federal laws and the creation of a unified commission to oversee the expanded betting operations, Windhorst continues. The Hornets’ Michael Jordan, the Wizards’ Ted Leonsis and the Mavs’ Mark Cuban have recently invested in a company focused on real-time data distribution, which would facilitate in-game wagering, Windhorst adds.
Lonzo Ball‘s younger brother LiAngelo Ball has no chance of being selected if he declares for next June’s draft, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. LiAngelo Ball would have trouble finding a spot in any professional league, including the G-League, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links). UCLA announced on Monday that the younger Ball intends to leave the program, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic tweets. The freshman was arrested along with two teammates in China on shoplifting charges and suspended by the school after being allowed to return to the United States.

Mavs Notes: Smith, Antetokounmpo, Centers, Curry

November 20th, 2017 at 6:01pm CST by clarkcrum

Although they enjoyed a 32-point win over the Bucks on Saturday, the Mavericks have struggled to find their rhythm early on this season, going 3-14 through their first 17 games and finding themselves in last place in the Western Conference.

Despite the rough start, however, head coach Rick Carlisle is not going to let his star rookie Dennis Smith Jr. pick up any losing habits. According to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News, Carlisle and Smith spend a lot of time together, one-on-one, going over film, both before and after games.

“He’s an important part of our team,” Carlisle said. “It’s gotten to the point where our winning is largely dependent on him playing well, which is a great compliment to him and what he’s been able to establish.”

There’s more from Dallas:

Saturday was a bittersweet night for the Mavericks. While they beat the Bucks handily, they were also reminded of what they missed out on after passing on Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft. As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News highlights, it was owner Mark Cuban who ultimately made the decision not to select Antetokounmpo.
According to Carlisle, Seth Curry is not expected to be back on the court this week, tweets Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. There is no timetable for Curry’s return.
Despite having “a forklift full of centers,” the Mavericks are aware that the position is somewhat of a roulette wheel at the moment, writes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. “It’s a bit of a by-committee position,” Carlisle said. “The guys got to roll with it and understand the things they do may only fit in certain stretches.”