A month after a report from Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther revealed a corporate culture of misogyny and harassment within the Mavericks organization, one former employee is going on record to say team owner Mark Cuban still doesn't recognize the problem.
In a first-person piece for SI, Melissa Weishaupt, who worked in marketing and game operations for the Mavs from 2010-14, addresses the hostile work environment she and many others have endured. Weishaupt reveals she was one of the women harassed by former Mavericks president Terdema Ussery during her time with the franchise. (Ussery has denied accusations of inappropriate workplace conduct.) Weishaupt, who chose to remain anonymous as part of the original SI report, explains why she decided to come out publicly on these issues.
"I’m using my name because I’m still not sure the Mavericks get it," Weishaupt wrote. "Since the story broke, owner Mark Cuban has repeatedly claimed he oversaw only the basketball side of that franchise, not the business side.
"Sorry. It doesn’t work that way. You own 100 percent 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."
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Weishaupt believes Cuban doesn't fully comprehend how he helped create this culture or that putting an employee hotline and counseling services in place are not the ultimate solutions. Those two steps were mentioned by Cuban in response to the allegations in the original SI article, but Weishaupt says she has spoken to multiple former and current Mavs employees who don't know the purpose of the hotline or how to use it.
"Now you want to help? We are not fragile flowers. We don’t long for counseling," Weishaupt wrote. "We want equitable pay. We need to be treated with respect. When deserved, we ought to be given the same promotions as our male counterparts."
Cuban said he was "embarrassed" this culture developed under his ownership, but he also made it clear he "deferred" and "let people do their jobs" on the business side of the organization. Clearly that doesn't match up with the picture Weishaupt and others have painted. The ongoing independent investigation into the corporate environment could reveal a great deal about what (or who) allowed this to happen.
