The Dallas Mavericks are at the center of some controversy with news stemming from a sexual harassment incident involving their former official. It has made two similar instances in the past, involving the New York Knicks, become a much talked about topic again, especially with the NBA appearing to most likely reprimand the Mavs for it and make up for them butchering two chances they had in the past.

This was the argument made in the piece made by Sean Deveney of Sporting News, as he discussed the lawsuit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders back in 2007 against the Knicks. The league did not slap the wrist of the organization at that time and allowed the court to be the lone decider on their future, which eventually turned into an $11.6 million settlement. Now that Adam Silver and company have the opportunity to change things and send a strong message to all teams, they may most likely not let the chance to fine the Mavs slip away anymore, according to New York employment attorney Kevin Mintzer, especially with the public expecting the league office to use some drastic measures.

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Mavericks' Daniel Gafford in front looking serious. Mavericks' Daniel Gafford dunking a basketball in background.

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“The message should be that these events — despite what you have allowed, what you have indulged, what you have turned your head away from in the past — OK, clearly it is not going to fly,” Mintzer said. “If you purport to be a progressive league and you purport to have values in which you care about injustice to people of color and women, but you allow workplaces like this to fester and do nothing when something is shown to be seriously wrong, then no one will take you seriously.

“The only time they’ll do something is when there is public pressure to do something. My expectation is Mr. Silver will get religion on this only when he feels he has to.”

If there's a time for the NBA to hand stamp their mark on wanting all their teams' cultures and practices to be aligned, this is definitely the time to do it. After receiving a lot of criticism when they only gave handbooks stemming from the issue centered around the Knicks, they could change the perception of the public about how much importance they're putting on sexual harassment cases, to show that they are against it and that it has no place in any workplace. It could be considered more as damage control at this point and taking advantage of a similar incident to make up for their shortcomings in the past, but it's also hard to imagine the NBA not coming up with any action this time around.