DALLAS — Over more than two decades of conversations, nearly all on background, Donnie Nelson never had a bad word to say about Mark Cuban. Or any word at all, for that matter. Just the same, I never took his reticence to mean he had no complaints. You couldn’t work 20 years as chief of basketball operations under one of the most overbearing owners in sports without chafing at least a little. Donnie just seemed like a guy trying to keep his job and his boss off his back.
You could say he’s now getting a few things off his chest, which would be putting it mildly.
Nelson has filed a lawsuit against his former employer alleging he was fired after reporting that his nephew was “sexually harassed and sexually assaulted” by Cuban’s chief of staff, Jason Lutin. Nelson’s lawyer, Rogge Dunn, attached an unexecuted settlement agreement purporting the Mavs would have paid Nelson $52 million to withdraw his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In an email to The Dallas Morning News, Cuban described the filing as “full of lies and ridiculous.” He also said the NBA has investigated Nelson’s claims and backs Cuban’s decision to fire him.
“I can only guess that this is sour grapes,” Cuban concluded, “and a way to try to get back at us for firing him.”
Now, I’m no lawyer, but this sure seems like a lot of grapes.
“Based on my investigation and the Mavericks’ track record on these issues,” Dunn said in a statement, “it is my opinion that Mr. Nelson will win his lawsuit against the Dallas Mavericks.”
About that “track record”: First there was the Sports Illustrated revelation in 2018 of a predatory office environment that led to a seven-month investigation, multiple firings, a $10 million fine from the NBA and the appointment of Cynt Marshall as CEO to sweep out the frat house. Then SI came back in 2020 with allegations that Tony Ronzone, who’d held several positions with the Mavs, had sexually assaulted a woman. The Mavs initially dismissed those charges but eventually fired Ronzone after getting more information.
And now here we are.
Again.
Let me ask you: Does it not feel a little ironic that the two highest-profile owners in town, if not in sports in general, are simultaneously at the center of lawsuits alleging untoward conduct? I mean, what are the chances? On second thought, I retract that last question.
Even so, it’s interesting to read one of the questions asked in the latest lawsuit. If the sworn statements in Nelson’s EEOC charge were false and Cuban really did fire Donnie because he was doing a lousy job, Dunn asks, “Why in the world would Cuban offer Nelson $52 million to settle Nelson’s legal claims?”
Maybe the same reason Jerry Jones paid four Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders $2.4 million even though no one supposedly did anything wrong.
Besides promising to provide examples previously undiscovered that would prove Cuban was not only fully aware of the “systemic, sexist and discriminatory” environment laid out in 2018 but condoned it, too, Nelson offered to throw in how his old boss screwed up basketball on the side.
Not saying Donnie holds a grudge, but the examples go back a ways:
Signing Dennis Rodman in 2000 was done “purely for marketing purposes” and “cost the young Mavericks their chances of making playoffs for the first time in 10 years.”
Cuban let Steve Nash walk as a free agent in 2004 against the wishes of Nelson and his old man, Don Nelson, and signed Erick Dampier instead. “How many titles would a Dirk [Nowitzki]-Nash team have won?” Insert your own answer here.
Cuban vetoed Donnie’s plea to draft Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 13th pick of the 2013 draft on the grounds that the $400,000 they would save could be used to sign Dwight Howard, who supposedly was “dying” to be a Mav. If he was “dying” to come here, Donnie reportedly told Cuban, $400,000 wouldn’t sweeten the deal.
Cuban usurped Donnie’s position in the summer of 2015 to negotiate with DeAndre Jordan’s agent, shaking hands on a four-year, $80 million deal, then watched as Jordan famously changed his mind and went back to the Los Angeles Clippers. “Cuban’s incompetence caused the deal to fall through,” the lawsuit alleges.
Of course, some of these tales we already knew, only not in language this colorful from one of the principals. Then again, the way we heard the Greek Freak story, Donnie practically begged Cuban to draft him. Even told him he was “putting his [expletives] on the table.”
Frankly, I would have liked confirmation of that detail in the lawsuit. I once asked Donnie point-blank if it were true, and he didn’t say a word. Maybe it’ll come up in court, if it gets that far.
