Applauding a sports activities group for responsibly dealing with sexual misconduct hardly ever occurs, so for those who’re keen to reward a workforce earlier than all the small print are launched — even when they launched the problematic participant, exec, or coach — it’s finest to attend. I nearly wrote the identical San Antonio Spurs piece as my coworker D.J. Dunson, who counseled the workforce for parting methods with lottery decide Josh Primo earlier than we even knew he allegedly uncovered himself to girls, together with the workforce’s employees psychologist, Hilary Cauthen.
The extra instances like this come up, the extra cynical my view is of any get together “doing the right thing” — exterior of the sufferer bravely reporting the malfeasance, after all. With this San Antonio scenario, it felt somewhat too near attempting to get forward of a possible lawsuit to offer them any flowers for slicing bait with an asset they spent valuable capital to amass.
Well, throughout a information convention Thursday with Cauthen and her legal professional, Tony Buzbee, the lawyer who additionally represented many of the girls that accused Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct, the 2 alleged that San Antonio did not appropriately react when she knowledgeable them of Primo’s repeated offenses. Both the workforce and free agent guard are being sued over the alleged indecent publicity, per a lawsuit filed Thursday in Bexar County, Texas.
Primo’s legal professional, William J. Briggs II, launched a prolonged assertion denying any wrongdoing on his shopper’s behalf. The assertion learn partially:
“Josh Primo is at the beginning of a promising career and has been devastated by these false allegations and release by the Spurs. He is in the process seeking treatment to deal with the trauma inflicted on him by Dr. Cauthen’s misleading allegations, in addition to the previous trauma he suffered as a child. He looks forward to clearing his name and to moving forward with his NBA career.”
G/O Media could get a fee
According to the go well with, Cauthen notified GM Brian Wright about Primo in January earlier than having a gathering with Wright about it in March, the place she expressed her discomfort over working with the rookie guard alone.
Then in April, after the groups stored calling on her to satisfy with Primo, she knowledgeable Wright about additional considerations and frustration over treating him, the go well with says. After Wright requested her “what consequence” she felt can be acceptable, she advised him the workforce wants to handle the scenario, and the GM responded that the franchise’s authorized workforce would keep up a correspondence.
She then met with legal professionals and authorized counsel for the Spurs, who disclosed to her an investigation can be opened, mentioned she ought to keep away from contact with Primo, and {that a} write-up was coming, based on the go well with.
When she requested in regards to the standing of the inquiry every week or so later, the workforce’s deputy basic counsel and head of human sources advised her Primo was going to proceed to take part in workforce actions and urged that she do business from home, based on the go well with.
When Cauthen met with workforce reps once more in June, they mentioned that they had spoken to Primo, and questioned if she can be open to having a dialog with him, the go well with says. She declined to take the assembly together with her alleged harasser.
And this isn’t within the go well with, however quite my opinion: Who the fuck might blame her?
At a later assembly the identical month, the dynamic duo of Spurs stooges disclosed to Cauthen that the workforce is mulling over fixes to the well timed reporting of incidents, based on the lawsuit. She was even advised that head coach Gregg Popovich was conscious of the scenario and “wanted to do right by her.”
The workforce didn’t reply to a request for remark from The Athletic.
So, if these allegations are true, the Spurs knew about Primo greater than 10 months in the past, did not take the claims of a workforce worker critically, stored asking her to satisfy with an alleged abuser, then urged she keep away from him and do business from home, provided up some sham of an investigation, requested her to have a dialog about it, provided up sham fixes to their damaged system, and solely minimize ties with the issue worker a mere week earlier than a lawsuit was introduced.
Now that sounds extra just like the incompetent, out-of-touch, bumbling sports activities organizations that I do know and detest.