Earl K. Sneed was one of the people named in SI’s bombshell report about the Dallas Mavericks having an uncomfortable and unsafe work environment for two decades, and the former Mavs.com writer insists the story painted him in an unfair light.
Late Tuesday evening, Sneed issued a statement to the Dallas Morning News in which he admitted to making mistakes but claimed SI’s story used language that is “not accurate.”
“While both instances described in the report are damning and language used is not accurate, the two relationships described in the report are not something I am proud to have been a part of,” Sneed wrote. “I underwent much counseling after both situations, under the direction of [Mavs vice president of human resources] Buddy Pittman, and I feel like I grew from that counseling. I also signed a contract stating that I would not have one-on-one contact or fraternize with female employees after the inaccurately described incident with my female co-worker, who was a live-in girlfriend. I abided by the details of that contract for four years, and received counseling during that period to avoid future instances.
“I thank Buddy Pittman for helping me to grow during that time, and I thank Mark Cuban for his willingness to help facilitate that growth.”
The report detailed two incidents involving Sneed. The first was a domestic dispute involving his girlfriend in which a police report stated that Sneed “sat on top of her and slapped her on the face and chest,” threatened to “f—ing kick your a–” and told her “today is gonna be the worst day of your life.” The woman reportedly suffered a fractured wrist and bruises on her arms and chest, and Sneed later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of family violence and was forced to pay a $750 fine, complete community service and enroll in anger management classes. The charges were dismissed upon completion of the sentence.
Many feel that should have been enough to cost Sneed his job, but he remained with the Mavericks organization and was accused of hitting a Mavs colleague whom he was dating two years later. The woman told Pittman about the incident and was informed of Sneed’s prior arrest, and she said in hindsight she is surprised Sneed kept his job.
Shortly after the SI report was released, Sneed tried to delete all of his tweets and deactivated his Twitter account:
Former https://t.co/aqLVXUYMo1 writer @EarlKSneed straight up bounced from twitter…tried to delete all his tweets and then deleted his twitter account after the SI report detailed his history of domestic violence while he worked with the Mavs pic.twitter.com/WBJlbsjHG0
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) February 21, 2018
For what it’s worth, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told SI he was “sick to my stomach” after learning of the allegations against Sneed and Pittman’s handling of the situation. Sneed’s statement indicated that Cuban was aware of the incidents.
The Mavs have issued a strong statement in response to the report, but it’s almost impossible to believe they had no knowledge of what was going on in the organization for the past 20 years. Sneed’s statement hurts their credibility even further.
