“I am deeply disappointed that anonymous sources have made such outright false and inflammatory accusations against me,” former Mavericks president Terdema Ussery said in response to accusations of sexual harassment.
One is no longer anonymous.
Melissa Weishaupt, an employee for the Mavericks from 2010 to 2014, came forward in a first-person Sports Illustrated story Tuesday, decrying how Mavericks president Mark Cuban has tried to duck blame for the culture that led to Ussery allegedly sexually harassing multiple women, herself included.
Weishaupt said she’s dropping anonymity because the Mavericks “still don’t get it.” Since Sports Illustrated shed light on the allegations last month, Cuban has pledged to clean up the mess he insists he didn’t know existed.
“Sorry. It doesn’t work that way,” wrote Weishaupt, who said she had worked in marketing and game operations. “You own 100% of the team, Mark. The buck stops with you. When I worked on the Mavs’ business side, all marketing, promotional and broadcasting decisions went through you. Nothing was decided without your approval.
“I am using my name because I am convinced that Cuban still doesn’t recognize the culture he’s helped create or the plight of the women who still work for him. From where I sit, Mark’s response was to rush in like some white knight in a T-shirt and jeans and yell, Don’t worry, ladies of the Mavs, I will help you with paid counseling and a hotline you can call!”
Weishaupt said she has spoken with current and former employees, none of whom knows how to even reach this hotline.
Cuban has called the experiences that multiple employees have opened up about “abhorrent,” but the hands-on billionaire said he was ignorant of the allegations because he was not involved in the everyday workings of the organization.
“I deferred to the CEO, who at the time was Terdema, and to HR,” Cuban told SI. “… I was involved in basketball operations, but other than getting the financials and reports, I was not involved in the day-to-day [of the business side] at all. That’s why I just deferred. I let people do their jobs. And if there were anything like this at all I was supposed to be made aware, obviously I was not.”
Cuban fired the team’s head of human resources after allegations arose that the department did little when women complained. Weishaupt said the problems are bigger than one employee.
“At the Mavericks — and I’m sure elsewhere — HR was there to protect management, not employees,” she said. “Many workers, especially middle-class and minority workers do not have a voice or an advocate at their jobs. They should chronicle what happens around them, find a support group outside of work. But they should be cautious in dealing with HR.”
The allegations are not just swirling around the franchise. The NBA is investigating 2011 allegations against the “Shark Tank” star, in which a woman said he sexually assaulted her in an Oregon bar. Cuban has denied the allegation.
