The Mavericks this week hired Cynthia Marshall as their new CEO, and team Owner Mark Cuban deserves "credit for going out and backing up" his promise to make changes following last week's report of misconduct in the organization, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. Cuban "admitted mistakes and he promised to fix it, and this is a pretty impressive start." ESPN's Rachel Nichols said when "scandals like this happen, sometimes the men who are in power try to deny everything or say their point of view is the only point of view." But Cuban "has not done that," and this is a "really good step forward." Nichols: "I would like to see the rest of the NBA take some of the similar steps" ("The Jump," ESPN, 2/27). ESPN's Jemele Hill said the NBA needs to "send a clear, concise and harsh message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in any organization." Hill said of Cuban, "When you say you don't know, that doesn't make you look any better. This is one of the most involved owners in professional sports." Hill: "You can't be the guy always willing to step to the microphone, but then when this happens, you're like, 'Wait, I didn't know anything'" ("OTL," ESPN, 2/27). In Austin, Kirk Bohls writes of Cuban, "Given his meticulous attention to detail as maybe the most hands-on sports owner after Jerry Jones, I find it incredulous he had no knowledge that sexual harassment had gone on forever inside his Mavericks offices." If he is honest, Cuban "should be ashamed he’s paying so much attention to trivial matters like tanking and not to making it a safe workplace" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 2/28).
