Watch Mark Cuban get emotional over sexual assault probe during ESPN interview

The seven-month investigation into the rampant culture of sexual assault in the Dallas Mavericks’ business operations is over.

Last February, Sports Illustrated published a story that would reveal the organization’s toxicity. We now know that the story’s findings, which came from more than a dozen current and former employees of the franchise, were very similar to the results produced by the recent investigations conducted by the Mavericks and the NBA.

The Mavericks retained the services of Anne Milgram Evan Krutoy and Krutoy Law. Those individuals concluded that inappropriate sexual behavior was exhibited by a number of former staff members including ex-president Terdema Ussery ex-ticket sales executive Chris Hyde and former team beat writer Earl K. Sneed, among others on a number of occasions.

You can read the law firm’s full report here.

On Wednesday, Cuban went on ESPN’s “The Jump” with Rachel Nichols. The reporter then put Cuban on the spot, asking him questions to the long litany of deviant behavior that occurred within the walls of his team’s business operations building for over 15 years.

“To the women involved, and the women who were in a couple of case assaulted,” Cuban said. “Not just to them, but to their families. Because this is not just something that’s an incident and then it’s over. It stays with people and it stays with families.

“I’m just sorry I didn’t see it. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize it. I just hope that out of this we’ll be better and we can avoid it and we can help make everybody just smarter about the whole thing.”

Before the team released its findings, ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski reported that, based on the NBA’s investigation, Cuban will donate $10M to organizations that “promote women in leadership roles and combat domestic violence.”

Wojnarowski also confirmed that the NBA will require the franchise to “make changes on reporting, staffing and policy to improve the workplace culture.”

He also said the NBA report concluded that “serious workplace misconduct by former and current employees,” and “improper or ineffective management.”

In response to that detailed February report from Sports Illustrated, Cuban hired Marshall, a former AT&T executive, as CEO. He also brought in Tarsha LaCour to be the senior vice president of human resources and Cyndee Wales to serve as the chief ethics and compliance officer.

Marshall also was interviewed by ESPN on Wednesday.

During an ESPN interview in February, Cuban took the blame for what has transpired. In that interview, he also said he made a “horrible mistake” in keeping Sneed after learning of Sneed’s domestic violence history.

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 5:52 PM.