Mark Cuban Faces Team’s Harassment Scandal — And Fine For Tanking Games
Mark Cuban Image by Getty
Mark Cuban, The Jewish billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is embroiled in two controversies this week.
On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated reported on allegations of sexual harassment in the management of the Mavericks. The next day, Cuban was fined $600,000, the largest single fine of his over $2.6 million in fines he’s paid to the NBA. The fine was in response to comments he made on the “House Call With Dr. J” podcast, in which he admitted to urging his team to “tank,” or intentionally lose games, in an effort to secure a higher draft pick.
Cuban maintains that he was not aware of any of the misconduct alleged, which mainly concern the Mavericks’ former team president and CEO, Terdema Ussery, and domestic abuse allegations against Earl K. Sneed, a high-profile member of the Mavs.com staff.
A statement from the Mavericks said the league office, “immediately hired outside counsel to conduct a thorough and independent investigation.”
Cuban, who also appears on the TV show “Shark Tank,” denies any knowledge of harassment but said “we are bringing in experts in this field to help us make sure those who need help get what they need and to make sure this never happens again.”
Contact Avichai Scher at [email protected] or on Twitter, @avi_scher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
