The Dallas Mavericks’ New CEO Is Cleaning Up a #MeToo Mess

The chief executive officer of the Dallas Mavericks, Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall, arrived at the office on media day in September with her phone already buzzing. Most of the messages concerned a blistering 43-page report chronicling two decades of toxic workplace culture in the team’s front office. The report, compiled by investigators hired by the Mavericks, had prompted owner Mark Cuban to announce that in lieu of paying a fine to the NBA, he would donate $10 million to groups dedicated to stopping domestic violence and developing women leaders in the sports industry. The media’s response was mixed. Some saw it as a staggering sum given that the NBA caps fines against owners at $2.5 million. Others saw it as a small price to pay for the damage that had been done to the team’s reputation. “We’re going to need coffee,” Marshall said.

The report was the latest development in a saga that had been unfolding since February, when a story in Sports Illustrated revealed the “corrosive” environment at the Mavs under former CEO Terdema Ussery. According to the magazine, Ussery had asked a female colleague whether she was planning to get “gang-banged,” propositioned women for sex, and seldom promoted female employees. He left the team in 2015 for a position at Under Armour Inc., which parted ways with him less than two months later in what the sporting apparel company has called an “organizational reshuffle.” SI reported that in his brief time at Under Armour, Ussery “behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner” while in an elevator with a junior employee. (“While we cannot disclose specific personnel matters, Under Armour takes these matters very seriously,” a spokesman for the company said in a statement to Bloomberg Businessweek. Ussery couldn’t be reached for comment for this story, but in his response to SI’s reporting, he expressed disappointment that “anonymous sources have made such outright false and inflammatory accusations against me” and said he was unaware of any sexual harassment claims against him.)