Mark Cuban is the archetype of the hands-on sports owner, yet claimed to have no knowledge of his organization’s corrosive culture, one that demeaned women and imperiled their safety. Terdema Ussery was the team’s longtime CEO, who claimed that he was unaware of any sexual harassment allegations against him, never mind that he was the subject of a widely-reported, multi-week investigation in 1998. Ussery was the same CEO, the man atop the org chart, who claimed that he had brought attention to colleagues’ workplace sexual improprieties, but “the organization” had refused to address his concerns.
But for all the ironies that wreathed around each other as SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reported on the misogynistic Dallas Mavericks office culture, this one was perhaps most striking: As “locker room atmosphere” has been colloquialized, the Mavs’ literal locker room was a safe space, accommodating and respectful to women.