Over on Tuesday evening, Sports Illustrated released an in-depth story about a culture of sexual misconduct involving the Dallas Mavericks. The story details numerous cases of alleged sexual assault against team president and CEO Terdema Ussery and a pair of domestic violence cases against former team beat writer Earl K. Sneed. Both are no longer with the team.
According to those involved, these two situations had more to do with the front office and nothing to do with the actual Mavericks locker room. The alleged incidents date back well over a decade under the leadership of team owner Mark Cuban. The team has since announced an investigation will be coming and Cuban has taken full responsibility for retaining Sneed. But the man who has been the forefront of the organization in that time, Dirk Nowitzki, spoke out against the incidents that happened as he led the team to success the organization has never seen before. He was disgusted, disappointed and shocked.
Following comes from Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
He called it what it is — “disgusting.”
“It’s tough,” Nowitzki said. “It’s very disappointing. It’s heartbreaking. I’m glad it’s all coming out. I was disgusted when I read the article, obviously, as everybody was.
“I was shocked by some of the stuff. Just really really disappointed that in our franchise – my franchise – that stuff like that was going on. It’s just very sad.”
And, with about 10 local and national reporters huddled around him, Nowitzki continued: “But I think Mark is trying to step up and lead this franchise in the right direction. Hiring investigators, finding out all the little details that we have to know as a franchise of what really was going on. I think Mark is going to step up and find answers.
“And we as a franchise, we feel bad for the victims and for what happened to some of these ladies – like I said, truly, truly disgusting. Our thoughts and prayers are definitely with these victims.”
Carlisle spoke from a position of fatherhood as much as a coach.
“I’m grateful we live in a place and time where people have the courage to speak up about things like this,” he said. “I also have a 13-year-old daughter (Abby) and I want her to know that it’s both brave and safe to speak out. And that’s very important to me and it should be important to everybody.
“When it comes to anything involving the Mavericks, Mark Cuban is a strong believer in extreme ownership, extreme accountability. And he’s highly motivated to get this resolved in an expeditious, but thorough manner. No steps will be skipped.
“Things happen for a reason. Any problem or crisis presents an opportunity and this is an opportunity for us to get something fixed.”
