Donnie Nelson's wrongful terminated suit was preceded by demands that he receive a blackmail payment, according to the Dallas Mavericks.
Nelson claimed that Cuban fired him last summer because he had reported that Cuban's right-hand man had sexually harassed and sexually assault Nelson's nephew during a 2020 job interview. Nelson's lawsuit said his nephew reached a settlement with the team after he was invited to the hotel room during the All-Star Weekend in Chicago. Nelson said he found out about the alleged incident and settlement only months later, while he was starting contract negotiations with Cuban, but that the talks ended after he pressed the issue about Lutin. Nelson was fired by Cuban in June 2021.
Cuban denied the allegations as a complete lie and also said that everything in that filing is a lie.
In Friday's court filing, the team alleged that Nelson approached Cuban in August 2020 and said he could leave in exchange for a long-term employment contract.
Nelson was told that if an assault had occurred, he should immediately contact the authorities. Nelson stressed that if the allegation became public, it would cause embarrassment for a team that had just recently dealt with unrelated claims of sexual harassment.
The Mavericks claim of extortion is meritless and fabricated, according to Nelson's lawyer.
The Mavericks would not have continued to employ Nelson for another 10 months and would have reported his alleged extortion to police if it were true. That is something that Cuban's lawyers demanded when they offered to settle Nelson's retaliation claim, with the final amount offered by the Mavericks being $52 million.
His attorney did not comment Friday.
The team retained an outside law firm to investigate and inform the NBA after learning of the nephew's allegations, according to the response. Nelson refused to fully cooperate, including refusing to provide his text messages to determine the extent of his involvement with his nephew's allegations.
Nelson's nephew never said that he had been attacked, according to the response. The people involved continued to talk and text for six months after their initial meeting. The matter was closed to Nelson's nephew after the investigation ended.
The Mavericks denied that action was taken against Nelson after he raised the incident. The team said that his firing last year was related to his job performance. Nelson diverted his time and attention to other outside business interests, and that he had violated team and league regulation and policies, according to the response.
The decision to fire Nelson was not an act of retaliation according to the response.
The lawsuit response was 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780
Mike Bass, a spokesman for the NBA, did not respond to a series of questions Friday, including whether the league will investigate the Mavericks for any allegations leveled against the team and executives in Nelson's lawsuit, or whether the team had told the league about Nelson's wrongful conviction. Nelson's lawsuit states that the league may not have known about Nelson's complaint.
Nelson alleged in his lawsuit that Cuban offered him $52 million to withdraw his wrongful terminated claim and sign a confidentiality statement related to the alleged harassment and abuse of his nephew. The proposed settlement was attached to the lawsuit.
Nelson said he didn't know about the incident or the settlement until five months later. The lawsuit says that the parties were talking about a contract. According to the lawsuit, Nelson confronted Cuban and said that his alleged activities were putting the Mavericks employees, players and the entire organization at risk. The lawsuit claims that Cuban sent Nelson a text delaying another discussion about a contract extension. It is related to some of the discussions we have had.
The lawsuit claims that Cuban responded to Nelson's warning that other Mavericks employees were at risk of being sexually harassed by Lutin. The lawsuit alleges a direct link between Nelson's complaint and Cuban's withdrawal of the contract offer.
The offer was not withdrawn but refused by Nelson according to the Mavericks response.
Nelson's petition claims that he was retaliated against for rejecting the employment contract, but the fact is that he rejected it.
Nelson's attorney sent a letter to the team demanding at least $100 million or he would make public accusations that would reveal the sexual orientation of a former Mavericks executive.
Nelson wanted to increase the pressure by filing an EEOC complaint. The team began to engage Nelson in settlement discussions at that time.
Nelson refused to engage in any resolution that asked him to represent that he had not engaged in any criminal conduct relating to his allegations, his adult nephew's allegations, or the other subject matters above.
Nelson worked for the Mavericks for 24 seasons, serving as an assistant general manager and assistant coach before being promoted to president of basketball operations. After his father left Cuban as Mavericks coach and general manager in 1997, he remained Cuban's top basketball executive for years.
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