The beautiful story between Donnie Nelson and the Mavs will have experienced a very sad end. After 23 years of good and loyal service during which he held the hats of assistant, assistant GM, GM, president and even interim coach during the 2000/01 season, the son of Don Nelson was finally pushed towards the exit in 2021. A departure that he did not digest since the son of Don Nelson attacks the Texan franchise for unfair dismissal.
According to ESPN, the trial will therefore take place on December 10 to allow justice to decide. Discoverer of immense talents like Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Doncic and architect of the NBA champion squad in 2011, Donnie Nelson believes that he was fired after his revelations of assault and sexual harassment from the right arm of owner Mark Cuban, Jason Imp, on his nephew. Facts dating back to February 2020, during All-Star Weekend in Chicago.
While he was in the middle of renegotiating his contract with the franchise, Donnie Nelson had the feeling of having been pushed out by Mark Cuban in order to “sweep these accusations under the rug.” His contract negotiation never moved forward, and he was ultimately fired in June 2021.
An extortion attempt?
For their part, the Mavericks obviously deny any unfair dismissal. They explain that they have done what is necessary to shed light on the incident involving Donnie Nelson's nephew. They reported the incident to the NBA and hired an external firm to investigate, until the matter was closed, “at the request of Nelson's nephew”, the franchise clarified.
Furthermore, the Dallas franchise assures that Donnie Nelson had also threatened to reveal the sexual orientation of Mark Cuban's chief of staff if his contractual demands were not met.
Mark Cuban then put forward the amount of the extortion attempt of which he accused Donnie Nelson: 100 million dollars! The Texas franchise simply justifies the reasons for the dismissal of Donnie Nelson, by “ a number of factors” , of which ” poor professional performance ».
