Mavericks Accuse Former GM Donnie Nelson of Extorting Up To $100M in Lawsuit Response

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Former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson sued the team Thursday, alleging that he was fired last summer after he reported to team governor Mark Cuban that his chief of staff, Jason Lutin, sexually assaulted Nelson’s nephew in 2020, per ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.

On Friday, the Mavericks responded to the lawsuit by accusing Nelson of a “lengthy scheme to extort as much as $100 million” from the organization, according to Van Natta. 

The alleged sexual assault and sexual harassment were said to have taken place during a job interview at the 2020 All-Star Weekend in Chicago. Nelson has said he only learned about the alleged assault months later. 

But the Mavericks have claimed in their own court filing that Nelson approached Cuban in Aug. 2020 and said he “knew of purported scandalous allegations from a family member that he could ‘make go away’ in exchange for a long-term employment contract that he had long desired.”

The filing continued:

“Defendants’ representatives told Nelson that if an ‘assault’ had occurred, then Nelson should immediately contact the authorities. Contrary to the statements in his Petition now, Nelson assured Defendants that there had not been an ‘assault’ and, to Defendants’ knowledge, neither Nelson nor anyone else ever contacted the authorities as the Defendants had suggested. However, 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 misconduct and implied it would ‘out’ the Mavericks executive’s sexual orientation.”

Nelson’s lawyer, Rogge Dunn, told Van Natta that the team’s claim of extortion was “totally meritless and fabricated.”

“If that allegation was true, the Mavericks would not have continued to employ Nelson for another 10 months and would’ve reported his alleged extortion to police,” he added. “Nelson is not the one who brought up confidentiality or his silence in the negotiations. That is something that Cuban’s lawyers demanded when they offered to settle Nelson’s retaliation claim—with the final settlement amount offered by the Mavericks being $52 million.”

On Thursday, Cuban denied the validity of Nelson’s accusations.

“Everything in that filing is a lie,” he said. “We did multiple complete investigations and the only person that did not live up to the standards of the Dallas Mavericks was Mr. Nelson. He was fired as a result. He was well aware of the investigation. He refused to fully participate. I will say it again, everything he said is a lie.”

The Mavericks said in Friday’s filing they hired an outside firm to investigate the allegations made by Nelson’s nephew and informed the NBA of the situation. They also said that Nelson’s nephew never accused Lutin of sexual assault and that the “actual allegations were not as sensational as the Petition claims” and that Lutin and Nelson’s nephew “continued to frequently talk and text for six months after their initial meeting” and that “the matter was closed to Nelson’s nephew’s satisfaction” following the investigation. 

NBA spokesman Mike Bass confirmed that the NBA was aware of the allegations made against Lutin and of the investigation that followed.

Nelson worked for the Mavericks organization for 24 seasons, eventually rising to become the team’s president of basketball operations in 2002 and general manager in 2005. He was fired by the team in June ahead of the 2021-22 season.