The Dallas Mavericks have been the talk of the NBA world over the past 24 hours after a damning report from Jessica Luther and Jon Wertheim in Sports Illustrated, citing multiple current and former employees of the organization, pointed out numerous incidents of sexual misconduct in the Mavs’ offices.
Mark Cuban has since released a pair of statements on the matter claiming to have had no knowledge of the incidents, firing Mavs.com writer Earl Sneed after calling not doing so sooner a “horrible mistake,” and insisting the Mavs will do everything possible going forward to correct any issues within the office’s culture. All of that is well and good and Cuban seems genuine about taking the right steps now, but for an owner that prides himself on being hands on it did raise many questions about how he could be so oblivious to these problems.
ESPN’s Rachel Nichols raised those questions on Wednesday afternoon, and the organization’s independent investigation into the matter has begun, with the NBA watching “very closely.” The players in the locker room were not the perpetrators of any of the alleged incidents and the locker room was even noted as being a safe haven by some of the former employees in the piece. Even so, the players were always going to be asked about the report and superstar Dirk Nowitzki, who’s spent his whole career in Dallas, offered his thoughts and noted his disgust with what was reported.
Dirk Nowitzki on the investigation of the Mavs: "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 … that our franchise, my franchise, that stuff like that was going on"
— Eddie Sefko (@ESefko) February 22, 2018
This is the right statement from Nowitzki and where Cuban should know what’s going on in his offices, Dirk would not be expected to have any idea. For the star player to come out and make this kind of statement is important and lends support to the victims of the misconduct and those currently working in the organization.
Nowitzki’s remarks that he’s “glad it’s coming out” have been echoed by many others, and hopefully this will continue. In the male dominated world of professional sports (and sports media), we are bound to have only reached the tip of a very ugly iceberg, but one that as we uncover more and more we can hopefully right the ship and begin truly changing the culture of sports which remains so hostile towards women.
