Following the Sports Illustrated report that exposed the "animal house" style culture within the Dallas Mavericks franchise, shining a light on the pervasive sexual misconduct that takes place within the organization, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has issued a new memo to all 30 teams in the association.
Without explicitly mandating the changes, as is now the case with the Dallas Mavericks, Silver laid out a few suggestions to the 29 other teams, urging them to improve workplace conditions and to hire more women, especially in leadership and supervisory roles.
"Use this opportunity to make changes and create a dialogue within your organizations about workplace policies, procedures, and respectful conduct," Silver wrote.
The memo asked that all teams have "Community Conversations" with employees within the next two weeks in regard to the report about the Mavs. Dallas owner Mark Cuban, who was not implicated in any of the reports of sexual misconduct, reacted quickly, announcing that he would be donating $10 million to help further the cause of women in sports and to raise awareness about domestic violence.
Silver previously acknowledged Cuban's actions in a statement released on September 19th: “We appreciate that Mark Cuban reacted swiftly, thoroughly and transparently to the allegations first set forth in Sports Illustrated – including the immediate hiring of Cynthia Marshall as CEO to effect change, but as Mark has acknowledged, he is ultimately responsible for the culture and conduct of his employees."
Now, the league is hoping to have such actions echoed throughout the association, suggesting what the Associated Press says is more than a dozen changes that include:
• Increasing the number of female staff, including in leadership and supervisory positions.
• Better harassment-reporting procedures for victims of misconduct.
• Additional commitments to ensuring that harassment is eliminated and diversity is improved.
• Anonymous workplace culture surveys of employees.
• Stronger human-resource departments.
• Sexual harassment training, with special training for managers and supervisors.
• Having general counsel employed in-house.
According to the memo, the set of recommendations were specifically created for the Mavericks, but the league office felt that the list was appropriate to send out to all workplaces in the NBA.
"We saw this as an opportunity to send those directly to our teams and say, 'Take a look at what you're currently doing and make sure, literally go down this checklist and make sure that you're doing those things as well.'"