What does the story about the Dallas Mavericks and Mark Cuban have to do with every CEO or, in fact, every C-level manager in America? In fact, quite a bit. You may not know very much about Mark Cuban as the owner of a basketball team. It is perfectly understandable if you would only know the outspoken man from his appearances on the reality show Shark Tank. He is also an author, having written How to Win at the Sport of Business, and of course, a hi-tech billionaire, worth about $3.7 billion. I say “of course,” because he likes to introduce himself as such. A basketball story or life in a corporate basement?
However, Cuban is also known as the billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He likes to heckle the referees and tell them what he thinks of their ineptitude. It is good to be Mark Cuban – to a point.
A Huge Fine
Mark Cuban and his Dallas Mavericks organization have been fined $10 million by the NBA. Normally a feisty character, Cuban nodded and is quietly forking over the money. To understand why, I will refer to a Sports Illustrated article (February 20, 2018):
“Mavericks employees…paint a picture of a corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior: alleged public fondling by the team president; outright domestic assault by a high-profile member of the Mavs.com staff; unsupportive or even intimidating responses from superiors who heard complaints of inappropriate behavior from their employees; even an employee who openly watched pornography at his desk. Most sources did not want their names used for a variety of reasons including fear of retaliation and ostracization…”
The character responsible for the bad behavior is the former CEO Terdema Ussery. He was more than a CEO,
he was a predator. If the #MeToo movement needed another example of a sexual abuser, and harasser, Ussery would be a great candidate.
After the report was released and Cuban did his own due diligence, he fired Ussery and hired a female executive Cynthia Marshall, to clean up the organization of every sexual harassing idiot on staff.
According to multiple sources, 15 women came forward to complain about Ussery. But as offensive as Ussery was, account executive/internet content person Chris Hyde may have been worse.
Employees said that Hyde watched porn in his office, among other inappropriate behavior. In fact, an employee saw a used condom on the floor of Hyde’s office. Another employee was apparently given a pass despite the fact that he had two counts of domestic violence.
The Mavericks organization stated that Mark Cuban apparently warned Hyde to stop viewing pornography going back to 2008. Cuban allegedly wrote:
“If you have any offensive pictures on your PC at the Mavs Chris, I will have you fired on the spot. No questions asked. I don’t give a [expletive] what you do on your own, but when it’s on a work computer, that crosses the line.”
Low Expectations or “The Pass”
Cuban was not affected by the investigation. There was no connection between him and Ussery, but there were several other issues. Cuban made the following apology:
“First, just an apology to the women involved,” Cuban said. “This is not something that just is an incident and then it’s over. It stays with people. It stays with families. And I’m just sorry I didn’t see it. I’m just sorry I didn’t recognize it.”
The apology was made to reporter Rachel Nichols. While no one felt brave enough to go to Cuban with a complaint, it was no secret, that going back all the way to 2000 that accusations were already in place against Ussery. Cuban admitted he never did due diligence. He said it never even dawned on him that there were problems within his organization.
He seemed to have blamed many factors on his lack of oversight, but the bottom line was that for years he allowed an atmosphere of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior to fester in his organization.
The question remains if he was given a pass and if in turn, he gave the sexual harassers within his organization a pass? Was it because he was so caught up in the arrogance of fame and stardom, or because he did not want to be a manager of his own organization?
If Cuban allegedly warned Chris Hyde more than a decade earlier, why would he, with his billions, not launch a full-scale investigation of his entire Mavericks organization? Was he waiting for an employee to step forward despite the fears of recrimination rather than to handle his own business?
There are those who feel that despite Cuban’s magnanimous offer of $10 million to fight sexual harassment, in light of everything else, he got away with very poor ethical judgment. I can’t help but wonder if the NBA was as starstruck by Cuban as the viewers who watched his off-the-court antics and his reality TV presence. The question remains, a basketball story or life in a corporate basement?
