Mark Cuban is in a lot of trouble.

And it would not be out of the question that he may, by the time this is all over, have to sell the Dallas Mavericks.

Two stories surfaced on Cuban while we were largely away with the Games, and neither appears to bode well for him:

• On Wednesday, February 21st, the NBA fined Cuban $600,000 for conduct detrimental to the league.  That conduct was because Mark Cuban admitted that, at this point in the season, it is in his and his team's best interests to lose.

Mark Cuban has openly admitted to desiring match-fixing to improve draft position.  That's bad enough!

What came a day or so before was worse.

• Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther blew open the Dallas Mavericks organization in an explosive Sports Illustrated exposition, calling the organization a "Real Life Animal House".

It starts with Terderma Ussery, then the president and CEO of the team -- a position he would eventually hold from 1997 to 2015, when he left for Under Armour, a post he left after three months (after another sexual harassment incident).

Before a game in 2010, a female member of the support staff was eating dinner and Ussery wanted to join her.

His reputation was such that he had sexually harassed her the moment he entered the room.

And, yes, this is possible.  I spent at least the last year of my first college (and probably a good part of my second) in a state of what I call "universal harassment".  Basically, the moment I enter a room, every female knows of my reputation and the conditions for harassment and sexual harassment are ALREADY MET -- before one word is said.

And this was the case with that Mavericks staffer.

Ussery then confirmed her suspicions, twice stating that the female staffer was going to get gang-banged, if not gang-RAPED.

At least one other female staffer ended her association as a salesperson for the Mavericks after a decade shortly after this incident made the rounds.  At least five others contacted by SI left the realm of sports completely because of this type of culture!

The ONLY sanctuary for many of these women, frankly, WAS the locker room and the players!  Most of the staff (other than, apparently, Cuban!) were fondling, groping, harassing, and covering it up, a months-long SI investigation reported in the linked article.

At 32, Ussery was made Commissioner of the CBA in 1991.

Two years later, he's President of the Nike Sports Management division for agenting Nike athletes -- yep, this probably meant Jordan at his height.  He was there for four years before taking the position with the Mavericks.

Ussery was actually floated as a potential successor to David Stern as Commissioner of the NBA!

Read the linked article.  I'm just throwing Cliff's Notes.  This is devastating -- not only to Cuban and Mavericks, but to the NBA as a whole.  He was a whiff away from being Commissioner of the entire damn league when he was doing this shit!  He basically was Jordan's main agent for about four years.

Mavericks Human Relations actually had to hire someone specifically to prevent Ussery from destroying the corporate franchise.

But this guy was so connected -- see above! -- that there was no way he could be removed.

Cuban retained Ussery when he bought the Mavericks in 2000.  So, to be fair, Cuban did not hire him to the Mavericks.

Earl Sneed is also profiled in the investigation -- a main writer for the official Mavericks website.

Arrested and admitted to domestic assault in 2012, he's banned from Canada.

Another incident is alleged to beating a woman in 2014!

He was suspended from his work with the Mavericks upon this investigation by Cuban.

Cuban's believed role?  None of the women believe Cuban was ever involved or ever even remotely a participant.

But the question which might determine whether Cuban remains owner of the Mavericks is one the women pose:  How could Cuban not have known?

And it's this that the NBA must immediately look at -- and they are.

It's not a question, again, of whether Cuban sexually harassed these women.  He did not.  Cuban is saying all the right things, and, usually, has been up front on everything -- which see the latest $600,000 fine as one example.

But if this situation is this bad, must Cuban (who, additionally, has now been fined for comments regarding one form or another of game integrity, over $2.5 million -- and probably far more!) sell the team?

He's got to answer the question as to what he knew, and then he has to answer the question as to how he could be an effective owner of a sports team and NOT know this was going on.

Your move, Mr. Silver...