Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban avoided a suspension from the NBA after an investigation uncovered several incidents of workplace harassment and predatory behavior from male employees over a 20-year span, including former team president/CEO Terdema Ussery.
League commissioner Adam Silver explained Friday that Cuban was spared of such punishment because it was determined that he wasn't personally involved in any improper workplace conduct.
"That was an important factor for me in making that decision," Silver said on Friday following the league's Board of Governors meetings, according to ESPN's Ian Begley. "Should he have known in many cases? Absolutely. But again, from the 215 witness interviews, the over a million pages (of documents in the report), the clear picture that was presented was Mark was absentee from the business side of the organization. So that was a critically important factor."
Cuban was interviewed by ESPN's Rachel Nichols during Wednesday's edition of "The Jump." He publicly apologized to the women and their families without naming names and expressed remorse for being blind to a majority of the behavior.
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Cuban has also agreed to make a donation of $10 million to "organizations that are committed to supporting the leadership and development of women in the sports industry and combating domestic violence."
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"That to me is an example that I don't see in any other industry, where someone is willing to put themselves out that way and be that forthcoming and act and be that responsive," Silver added. "So given the totality of those circumstances, I ultimately decided that a suspension was not appropriate."
