Mavs investigate charges of workplace misconduct
DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks have hired outside counsel to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct by former team president Terdema Ussery in a Sports Illustrated report that described a hostile workplace for women.
Ussery was accused of making sexually suggestive remarks to several women. He spent 18 years with the team before going to the sports apparel company Under Armour in 2015. Ussery, who was investigated by the team over similar claims in 1998, denied the allegations in a statement to SI.
The report said team website reporter Earl Sneed was twice accused of domestic assault while working for the Mavericks, including a guilty plea in a case that was dismissed when he met the conditions of the agreement.
The team said Sneed had been fired, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told SI that he fired human resources director Buddy Pittman after learning details of the magazine’s report. Pittman and Sneed declined to comment to SI.
The NBA said the Mavericks had informed the league of the allegations involving Ussery and Sneed.
Cuban fined for tanking comments
The NBA fined Cuban $600,000 on Wednesday for comments about tanking during a podcast with Hall of Famer Julius Erving.
Commissioner Adam Silver said the fine was for “public statements detrimental to the NBA.” The league said the podcast with Erving was posted Sunday, the day the All-Star game was played in Los Angeles.
Cuban said during the 30-minute interview that he met recently with some of his players and told them “losing is our best option.”
James is against playoff proposal
LeBron James says leave the NBA playoffs alone.
The Cavaliers superstar said Wednesday he disagrees with a potential proposal to re-seed the 16 teams in the playoffs regardless of conference. The league has always had teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences compete separately in the postseason with the respective conference winners meeting in the NBA Finals.
Silver recently floated a proposal where the 16 teams would be seeded regardless of their conference.
“It’s cool to mess around with the All-Star Game, we proved you can do that,” said James, who picked an All-Star team this year under a new format. “But let’s not get too crazy about the playoffs.”