Report: Mavericks executive 'Pants DJ' kept job despite porn use, dropping used condom in office
Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks appear to be in even more trouble.
Chris Hyde — a Mavericks senior account executive who was fired in 2014 — repeatedly looked at pornographic images on his cellphone or computer while touching himself, generating the nickname “Pants DJ,” according to a report from the Dallas Morning News.
According to the report, Hyde would look at the images while at his desk in the Mavericks ticket sales office, often call co-workers over and show them pictures he’d taken of women in lingerie, topless or naked, and even dropped a used condom on the office floor.
The report comes after a Sports Illustrated report in February detailing a “corrosive workplace culture” within the Mavericks organization that included sexual harassment and domestic violence, something that was described as an “open secret” within the organization.
“As readers of the [Dallas Morning News] know, we cannot comment because of the ongoing investigation,” CEO Cynthia Marshall — who was hired in the wake of the Sports Illustrated report to “clean up the non-basketball side” of the Mavericks — wrote in an email to the Dallas Morning News. “It has been previously stated that the employee referenced was terminated years ago.”
Hyde did not comment to the Dallas Morning News about the report.
Who is Chris Hyde?
Hyde worked at the Dallas Mavericks for 15 years, and was a senior account executive in the organization. The 57-year-old was regularly one of the team’s top earners in ticket sales, and reportedly wrote on his LinkedIn page that he was the “number one sales generator for 15 straight years which produced $75 million in revenue.
The co-workers said that while they were scraping by on minimal salaries, Hyde drove a Maserati. He would brag to co-workers about hosting parties at a luxury apartment across the street from American Airlines Center that he shared with a longtime Mavericks season-ticket holder. Hyde also maintained a four-bedroom home with a pool and spa near Riverchase Golf Course in Coppell that he sold in June for $432,000, according to property records.
[Hyde] was one of the central figures who helped cultivate a sexually charged work environment in the NBA franchise’s corporate office, according to the current and former employees interviewed by the Dallas Morning News.
The “Pants DJ” incidents
The nickname “Pants DJ,” according to a former employee, stems from “like what a DJ does on a turntable because it looks like he’s kind of rubbing his leg,” something he apparently did a lot.
According to three former employees, Hyde showed them pornography multiple times throughout nearly his entire tenure with the organization. One former male employee said that Hyde showed him “erotic photos and videos” as many as 30 times, and Hyde even brought his own hard drive to work so he could view pornography without having to go through the Mavericks’ computer system, according to the report.
One woman who sat close to Hyde in the Mavericks’ office said that Hyde would “often get her attention so she’d look over the partition separating their desks and see pornography on his computer screen.”
In early 2011, three former employees said they found a used condom on the office floor, and that one of them had seen it fall from Hyde’s pants leg as he left the bathroom shortly after lunch.
Did Mark Cuban know?
Apparently, yes.
According to the report, Cuban knew that Hyde was looking at pornography in the office, and warmed him he would be fired if he continued to view it at work in early 2008.
One former employee said that Cuban’s warning stopped Hyde’s behavior briefly, though he continued just a few months later.
Cuban was also alerted about the condom incident, though did not fire Hyde until three years later. He did not comment to the Dallas Morning News on the record about Hyde.
Five of the seven former team employees who spoke to the Dallas Morning News said that they never formally complained to human resources about Hyde “because they believed the actions were common knowledge and generally accepted by superiors.”
This report, though, reveals that Cuban knew more about the “corrosive culture” in his organization than he initially admitted. He insisted he was unaware of what was described in the Sports Illustrated report regarding former president and CEO Terdema Ussery and former Mavs.com reporter Earl Sneed.
The Mavericks and the NBA are currently investigating the claims made in the Sports Illustrated report, something Marshall said could wrap up as early as the end of this month.
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