The Mavericks have fired Tony Ronzone less than a year after Sports Illustrated detailed a sexual assault allegation against the executive.
The Mavericks have reportedly fired director of player personnel Tony Ronzone following a sexual assault allegation, according to the Dallas Morning News's Brad Townsend.
It's unclear when Ronzone was dismissed from the organization, per Townsend.
Sports Illustrated published a sexual assault allegation against Ronzone in July 2020. He is accused of pinning a woman to a bed in Las Vegas in July 2019 before groping and kissing her without consent. Ronzone continued to kiss the woman before she "escaped the room," per SI's report.
The Mavericks initially did not fire Ronzone after the report, telling SI "there was no evidence presented of sexual assault," following a team investigation. Dallas criticized the investigation when it was published, calling it "one-sided."
The Mavericks failed to obtain two key pieces of evidence during its investigation, including a phone call in the direct aftermath of the alleged assault, per Jessica Luther and Jon Wertheim. The victim's lawyers also offered access to sworn statements from those informed of the incident, but those offers were not accepted by the Mavericks, per SI.
SI previously detailed sexual harassment and workplace misconduct in the Mavericks' organization in February 2018. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban apologized following the report, and he donated $10 million to women's organizations after an NBA investigation.
“I’m just sorry I didn’t see it," Cuban told ESPN in 2018. "I’m sorry I didn’t recognize it. I just hope that out of this we’ll be better and we can avoid it and we can help make everybody just smarter about the whole thing.”