Former President and CEO of Dallas Mavericks, Terdema Ussery, has been accused of sexual misconduct by several female employees. This is the conclusion of a report by Sports Illustrated.
The report describes in detail how Ussery, who worked for Mavericks for 18 years until 2015, behaved within the organisation. The Mavericks announced on Tuesday in a statement that they had already started an investigation, saying,”The Mavericks organization takes these accusations extremely seriously.
Owner Mark Cuban said that he had no idea of this problem, but he strongly condemned it and said,”It’s wrong. I can’t tell you how many times since the #MeToo issue in our Human Resources department I’ve asked if we have a problem that I wanted to know about. The answer was always no.”
Cuban has now responded by firing former HR Director Buddy Pittman. Mavericks reporter Earl Sneed was also fired as he was accused of several cases of domestic violence.
The NBA also issued a statement on Wednesday night:”The Dallas Mavericks informed us about the allegations against former team president Terdema Ussery and Mavs. com writer Earl Sneed. This alleged conduct contradicts the commitment of NBA and its teams to creating a safe, respectful and enjoyable working environment for all employees. Such behavior is completely unacceptable and we will investigate this very carefully,”said Mike Bass, NBA Executive Vice President, Communications.