Sports Illustrated’s investigation comes at a time when women are ready to say “Time’s Up”. The explosive investigation uncovers years of sexual misconduct allegedly by former Mavericks’ president Terdema Ussery. Authors Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther paint a picture of the organization as one who allowed this behavior to continue with everyone knowing about the allegations.
One former employee explained the atmosphere was like the movie “Animal House”. Other employees confirmed to Sports Illustrated that it was not just Ussery, but instead an entire workplace culture that condoned misogyny and ignored complaints of misconduct. One female employee described the team locker room as a “refuge” from the “zoo”, referring to the workplace. Employees claim to have left the sports world because they were tired of feeling vulnerable at work while protecting powerful men who were misbehaving. One former male employee explained to Sports Illustrated, “The lack of oversight and compassion within all levels of the business was alarming.”
On Monday, the team announced that it was bringing in an independent investigator after notifying the league about the allegations in this article. The investigation will also look into the organization as a whole and see where the problems are. The team’s vice president of human resources Buddy Pittman has also been fired. According to the Sports Illustrated piece, one of the women went to Pittman to complain about Ussery’s inappropriate behavior which allegedly included asking female employees for sex and touching their legs during meetings; the other was too scared to say anything.
Ussery made a statement yesterday on the allegations, “During my career with the Mavericks, I have strived to conduct myself with character, integrity and empathy for others. During my nearly 20 year tenure with the Mavericks, I am not aware of any sexual harassment complaints about me or any findings by the organization that I engaged in inappropriate conduct. In fact, on multiple occasions I and other senior executives at the organization raised concerns—both in person and in emails—about other Mavericks employees who had engaged in highly inappropriate—and in some cases, threatening—sexual conduct. The organization refused to address these concerns, and I believe these misleading claims about me are part of an attempt to shift blame for the failure to remove employees who created an uncomfortable and hostile work environment within the Mavericks organization.”
The article continues with the team’s complete mishandling of full-time Mavs.com beat writer Earl K. Sneed who was arrested in 2012 at the Mavs’ building for domestic assault against his girlfriend. He pled guilty, but did not lose his job. He was unable to travel with the team to Toronto because of the case, however, he still did not lose his job. He began a relationship with a fellow Mavs’ employee who he allegedly also got physical with according to multiple employees. He still did not get fired despite the woman reporting the incident to her supervisor and Pittman. On Monday, Cuban finally made the move to suspend Sneed. Not fire, despite being accused of assaulting a fellow employee, but suspend. After some time and probably a lot of unfavorable backlash, Cuban fired Sneed the following day.
Team owner Mark Cuban is using the deaf, dumb, and stupid excuse, saying that he had no idea that any such bad behavior was going on. Come on, you really had no idea what your team president was being accused of? It is not a seasonal janitor being accused, but the guy who is supposed to oversee YOUR team. Come on Mark, you didn’t become a billionaire “shark” by not overseeing everything that went on in your organization.
In a statement, Cuban said that he was being vigilant about his organization, saying, “It’s not a situation we condone. 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.’ ” Cuban prides himself on being heavily involved with all aspects of the team, but he really had no idea about what was going on behind all the brights lights and cameras? Come on now.
To read the entire Sports Illustrated article, click here.
