Former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson has settled a two-year-old lawsuit against the franchise and its former owner, Mark Cuban, according to court documents filed in Dallas County court in Texas. In a filing on Oct. 31, Nelson told the judge overseeing the case that he was dropping the lawsuit “with prejudice.” The court accepted Nelson’s request to drop the lawsuit on Nov. 1, dismissing the suit “with prejudice,” meaning Nelson can not refile his claim.
Nelson sued the Mavericks and a limited liability company owned by Cuban in March 2022, nine months after he had been fired. He accused the Mavericks of firing him after he told the team his nephew had been sexually assaulted by a team executive. Nelson had been the Mavericks’ general manager for 16 years before he was removed from the position.
Nelson’s attorney, Rogge Dunn, said to ESPN that “the parties have reached a resolution of their dispute on confidential terms.”
Nelson said in the lawsuit that a Mavericks executive assaulted and harassed his nephew in a Chicago hotel during All-Star weekend in 2020. He also claimed that Cuban offered him $52 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement and withdraw his wrongful termination claim. In response, the Mavericks said in a court filing that Nelson was engaging in a “lengthy scheme to extort as much as $100 million” from the franchise.
The case was set to go to trial on Dec. 10.
Lawyers for Nelson did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Mavericks did not respond to an email requesting comment. Cuban did not respond to an email asking for comment.
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