Distractions are inevitable for an investigation that likely will linger into the early summer months, and the Mavericks' front-office scandal has been sidetracked by commotion on two fronts.
A source said that the organization was convinced that allegations of owner Mark Cuban's sexual misconduct in a Portland, Ore., incident were unfounded, although that was a considerable time-consumer for the organization on Wednesday.
Moreover, the source said, the Mavericks had to suspend another employee for an allegedly racist comment made online in 2016.
In what is an increasingly guilty-until-proven-innocent society, the latest problems will not stem the tide of negative public opinion toward the organization, which has been reeling for more than two weeks since Sports Illustrated's report of alleged sexual misconduct in the front office.
Cuban was back in the spotlight when a report from Portland was revealed late Tuesday when a report quoted a police complaint that did not result in any charges being filed about him allegedly sexually touching a woman in 2011.
Cuban strongly denied the allegation and the fact that no charges ever were filed against him suggests that incident had no merit.
However, that doesn't mean the Mavericks aren't concerned that _ or prepared for _ more allegations to be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, the front-office problems continued to grow when they suspended their general manager of Mavs Gaming, Roger Caneda, after a racist tweet from 2016 was uncovered, the source said.
There were further unconfirmed reports of more controversial comments on Twitter in 2017, although the source said it was uncertain whether Caneda's account had been hacked at that point.
Research into that claim was ongoing as of Wednesday evening. The Mavericks had not put out any official statement about the incident.
He did not work for the Mavericks in 2016, but the source said there was enough evidence in the current environment to merit an investigation and suspension.
The gaming arm of the Mavericks is an NBA-sanctioned video-game initiative geared at luring new online fans to the NBA market. The league believes it can attract a new generation of fans.
This continues a pattern of behavior that has brought the Mavericks' front office under fire.
There are other things that have not been revisited yet, such as Cuban's 2001 interview with Penthouse magazine in which he talked about the best pickup lines he's heard, strangest request ever asked of him during sex and wildest sexual experience.
In another development, the source said that the investigation involving Terdema Ussery and the allegations brought forth by women in the Sports Illustrated article are still being investigated and that the matter could drag on into early summer.
The source said that what was going on with other situations would not take away from the focus of the main investigation going on in the front office and that differentiating from what was legitimate and what wasn't was a key focus of the investigation.
