Following a seven-month investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct within the offices of the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA and Mark Cuban have agreed he will donate $10 million to organizations that promote women in leadership roles and combat domestic violence.
According to the NBA’s report about the investigation, the Mavericks were found to have “serious workplace misconduct by former and current employees” and “improper or ineffective management.”
Also, the NBA’s report says that claims of inappropriate comments and touching by former Dallas Mavericks president and CEO Terdema Ussery were substantiated by 15 current and former employees.
Under league rules, the NBA can only fine an organization $2.5 million, so the donation tactic is somewhat of a loophole and also underscores how bad the problems in Dallas were.
In addition to the donations, the NBA will also require the team to file quarterly reports to the NBA league office and report any significant employee misconduct.
There are also NBA-mandated sanctions on Dallas that will require that the franchise make changes on reporting, staffing and policy to improve the workplace culture, league sources said. Donald Sterling had received that $2.5M fine as Clippers owner. https://t.co/mJNMvMMh5j
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 19, 2018
In the original Sports Illustrated report that exposed the issues in Dallas, the work environment surrounding the Mavericks was described as ” a corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior.”
The report also mentioned “alleged public fondling by the team president; outright domestic assault by a high-profile member of the Mavs.com staff; unsupportive or even intimidating responses from superiors who heard complaints of inappropriate behavior from their employees; even an employee who openly watched pornography at his desk.”
Players on the team were never implicated and denounced the behavior when the allegations surfaced.
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