The National Basketball Association is monitoring how the Dallas Mavericks are responding to allegations of improper workplace conduct that were not included in the investigative report released two weeks ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Friday, according to ESPN’s Tim McMahon.
According to a report from the Dallas Morning News, citing former female employees that spoke on the condition of anonymity, longtime team photographer Danny Bollinger allegedly has a history of making lewd comments, as well as propositioning women at work.
The report quotes two women who tell the paper that they informed investigator’s about the misconduct by Bollinger, but that Bollinger was not included in the 43-page report released at the conclusion of the seven-month independent investigation.
Silver stated that the league office had been informed of the allegations against Bollinger.
Bollinger had been sent home from the Maverick’s trip to China.
“My concern level is always extraordinarily high when you’re hearing stories about any inappropriate conduct in the workplace, whether it’s those allegations at the Mavericks or anywhere at our teams,” Silver said during his news conference prior to the Mavericks-Philadelphia 76ers preseason game.
“I will say that, when the investigators did their review of the Mavericks’ organization, they made a decision to not make public allegations that were brought by employees who chose to remain anonymous. What they did at the end of the investigation was, in essence, shift to the new management of the Dallas Mavericks, run by Cynthia Marshall, their findings with an understanding that Cynthia Marshall, then using a more traditional human resources process, would continue to investigate particular employees and then act on them.
“Part of the process, the new process we put in place with the Mavericks, was an ongoing reporting obligation to the league office. So Cynthia Marshall has been in constant contact with Kathy Behrens at the league office. We were aware of those additional allegations, and we are monitoring how they are responding to them.
“To the best of my knowledge, and I haven’t talked to Cynthia in the last few days, I think they’re well equipped now with the new organization they put in place to do the appropriate and necessary investigations and then to act on those findings.”
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also commented, with the following:
“To suggest that the Mavs hid anything or didn’t take an action for any reason, any whatsoever, is to claim that you believe that Cynt (Cynthia Marshall) and the professionals she brought in are not capable of doing their jobs,” Cuban said, according to the newspaper. “They have, they are and will continue to do the jobs they know how to do and continue to have carte blanche to make any personnel decisions they feel the need to make in accordance with the guidelines they defined, not what any outside organization feels they should be.”
Marshall also commented:
“We were transparent about the findings of the independent investigation,” Marshall said. “Our own internal investigations will not yield transparency. It’s private. It’s the normal course of doing business.”