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Mavericks face more workplace misconduct allegations, report says

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Four former female employees of the Dallas Mavericks, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Dallas Morning News that a team photographer has a history of inappropriate behavior, including propositioning female co-workers for sex and making lewd comments in the workplace.

The new allegations — against longtime Mavs employee Danny Bollinger — come two weeks after the team made public a report on the results of a wide-ranging investigation into sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct stretching back years and including multiple team employees.

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Bollinger, 50, has worked in the Mavericks' marketing department for almost two decades, but "neither Bollinger nor descriptions of his behavior were included in the report on the seven-month investigation," The News reported, noting that Bollinger has been friends with team owner Mark Cuban since the 1990s and introduced him to his future wife.

Two of the women cited in the new allegations say that Bollinger propositioned them for sex multiple times, and one said he showed her inappropriate photos while at work of Mavericks dancers and female fans sitting in the front row at games.

Three of the women who worked for the Mavericks and another woman who volunteered for the team told The News that they were surprised Bollinger wasn't mentioned in the report.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, in China for the Mavericks-76ers preseason game in Shanghai, said Friday that the league office is monitoring how the team responds to the women's allegations.

"To the best of my knowledge — and I haven't talked to (new team CEO) Cynthia (Marshall) in the last few days — I think they're well-equipped now with the new organization they put in place to do the appropriate and necessary investigations and then to act on those findings," Silver told reporters (via ESPN.com).

Bollinger, who traveled with the team to China but appeared to have been sent home, according to The News, did not return multiple phone calls and texts from the newspaper seeking comment for the story, published under the headline, "Special report: Dallas Mavericks face questions about another employee's workplace conduct with women".

Cuban, in an email response to questions about the women's allegations, cast doubt on whether The News had an "understanding of the processes involved in dealing with personnel issues."

"To suggest that the Mavs hid anything or didn't take an action for any reason, any whatsoever, is to claim that you believe that Cynt and the professionals she brought in are not capable of doing their jobs," Cuban said, in part, referring by nickname to Marshall, who was hired in February to help clean up an organization that had been roiled by a Sports Illustrated story that exposed widespread sexual misconduct that led to the independent investigation.

Per The News, page 5 of the independent investigation report includes a footnote that reads, in part, that "over the course of our investigation into serious workplace misconduct, we deferred to the new Mavericks leadership to handle allegations of other misconduct that fell outside the scope of our investigation or that we felt would be most appropriately addressed internally."

Marshall told the newspaper that their internal investigation is ongoing.

Cuban agreed to donate $10 million in lieu of a fine as a result of the independent report's findings.

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