Sports Illustrated Report Lands Dallas Mavericks At The Center Of Another Sexual Harassment Scandal

Two years after a sexual harassment and workplace misconduct scandal rocked the Dallas Mavericks, the organization again finds itself at the center of another incident. According to an investigation by Sports Illustrated, a woman, who is not a Mavericks employee, came forward with allegations of “inappropriate behavior” against a team executive in September 2019, more than a year after the initial scandal.  

The executive in question is Tony Ronzone, the team’s director of player personnel. SI reports that Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban became aware of the alleged sexual assault in an email by the accuser two months after it took place inside a Las Vegas hotel room in July 2019, when the team was in town for NBA Summer League. The team’s human resources department was notified soon thereafter the report also notes. In the months that followed, the team did not discipline Ronzone and he remains with the team.

A lawyer representing Ronzone tells Sports Illustrated the accusations against his client “meritless.”

According to the Mavericks, they did not dismiss Ronzone because “there was no evidence presented of sexual assault.” However, SI’s investigation uncovered pieces of evidence that the Mavericks were not able to attain—contemporaneous accounts of the incident. A lawyer for the Mavericks claims that the accuser and her attorneys “refused to provide those declarations to the Mavericks and to us unless certain conditions were agreed upon – conditions that went well beyond protecting the identity of the individuals who executed those affidavits or statements.”

In the wake of SI’s bombshell investigation in 2018, the Mavericks claimed to make sweeping changes to the culture of the organization. On the surface, it appeared that they did. Cuban hired former AT&T
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executive Cynthia Marshall as the organization’s new CEO. Marshall brought with her sweeping changes within the work place after a career of work in HR. Multiple employees that I have spoken with praise Marshall and her efforts.

Cuban also seemed committed to being better moving forward and was remorseful about letting a toxic culture persist for nearly two decades under his watch. He paid $10 million to charities promoting women in leadership as well as to those combating domestic violence as part of the NBA’s sanctions against him and the team.

For all the organizations actions to rid itself of the stigma and pain caused by the actions of a few, it appears that some people slipped through the cracks.

Months after a wave of dismissals in 2018, the Mavericks fired another employee for sexual harassment. This time it was team photographer Danny Bollinger, an 18-year employee of the Mavericks and longtime friend of Cuban. Yet, his firing was not the end of his relationship with the team. Bollinger still regularly attends games and is often seen speaking with team personnel and officials, including General Manager Donnie Nelson, outside the Mavericks’ locker room at the American Airlines Center.

Now, there is Ronzone. A source confirms that Marshall held an all-staff conference call Wednesday morning shortly after Sports Illustrated published its latest damming story was published to discuss it with employees. They did not go into further detail about the call. Despite Marshall’s influence and the Mavericks’ best efforts, the organization cannot seem to shake a specter of sexual misconduct among its ranks.

Due to the investigation in 2018, the Mavericks are required to immediately report instances and allegations of employee misconduct to the NBA. The league told SI that the Mavericks did report the incident involving Ronzone and the team’s ongoing investigation in November 2019.