DALLAS _ Not two weeks ago, Mark Cuban took time on his radio show to give Dan Snyder a little advice about the "toxic work culture" the Washington Post found inside his pro football team from 2006-19, not a lot unlike what Sports Illustrated uncovered in Cuban's Mavs two years ago.
"You have to accept the mistakes you made," Cuban said. "That's painful.
"I made a lot of mistakes."
And he's still paying for them, apparently.
Sports Illustrated is back this week with another investigation of the Mavs, this one far less extensive but no less complicated. Just reading it could make you dizzy. In it, an unnamed woman accuses Tony Ronzone _ the Mavs' player personnel director and Donnie Nelson's right-hand man in international scouting _ of assaulting her in his Las Vegas hotel room a year ago.
The Mavs released a statement challenging several assertions in the story. They say their investigation revealed no evidence to back up the woman's charges, though they concede they didn't view all of the evidence. And that represents only a small portion of the confusion.
There's plenty to parse here _ not the least of which is the woman's story and the fact that the Mavs didn't farm out the investigation to the NBA in the first place _ but it seems to come down to this:
Either Cynt Marshall had a bigger job than she thought when she agreed to take on Cuban's corporate culture, or previous sins make the Mavs a convenient target.
Frankly, I wouldn't dare hazard a guess as to which is the case. Not without some further clarification, anyway.
Until then, the least of the ramifications is that it could potentially undermine the image Marshall has fostered of a franchise dedicated to rehabilitating the frat house culture she inherited. By all accounts, Marshall has worked hard at that task. Instituted a "zero tolerance" policy. Hired and promoted women. Won a seal of approval from the NBA, even if that affirmation seemed a tad too perfunctory.
Marshall made clear her ambitious goals at her introductory news conference.
"We are laying out a vision that says by 2019," she said, "the Dallas Mavericks will be the standard in inclusion and diversity."
Yet here it is, 29 months later, and instead of celebrating heightened standards, the Mavs' morals are once again under scrutiny. Probably fair to say this isn't what she'd envisioned at all.
