The Dallas Mavericks’ internal investigation uncovered some pretty horrific details about the culture of sexual harassment in the team’s offices today.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Ex-Senior Account Executive, Chris Hyde, watched a ton of porn at his desk, while he worked for the Maverick’s organization.
Hyde worked for the Mavericks for 15 years, and his pattern of watching porn at work allegedly began right after Hyde started his job in Dallas.
Dallas Morning News spoke to seven current and former employees, who asked to remain anonymous, about the specifics of Hyde’s behavior and how he earned the nickname “Pants DJ” in the first place:
[Hyde] continued for six years despite a warning from owner Mark Cuban that he stop viewing pornography on his office computer.
His co-workers called him “Pants DJ.”
He would sit at his desk in the Dallas Mavericks ticket sales office, stare at pornographic images on his cellphone or computer and rub himself below his belt line.
He’d often call co-workers over to show them pictures on his phone that he’d taken of women in lingerie, topless or naked.
He once dropped a used condom onto the office floor.
Two of the co-workers said they had witnessed Buddy Pittman, the Mavericks vice president of human resources, pick up the used condom with a paper towel before disposing of it.
Cuban was alerted about the condom incident, two sources said, but Hyde kept his job for three more years.
One of the men said Hyde showed him erotic photos and videos on his phone as many as 30 times, with about half of those occurrences coming after [Cuban’s] warning.
The other former employee said Hyde went as far as to bring in his own external hard drive so he could view pornography at work and avoid going through the Mavericks’ computer system.
One former employee explained the “Pants DJ” nickname as “like what a DJ does on a turntable because it looks like he’s kind of rubbing his leg.”
Cuban declined to comment on Hyde’s allegations; however, these reports would suggest that Mark Cuban actually knew more than he previously led on in February, when Sports Illustrated originally ran a story detailing the history of sexual harassment within the Dallas Mavericks’ organization.
Shocking…
Hyde was regularly one of the top earners in ticket sales for the Mavs. Which is probably why Hyde was not let go from the Mavericks until 2014, and also probably why his termination had zero to do with any porn or condom incidents.