Terdema Ussery, President & CEO, Dallas Mavericks and CEO of HDNet

Terdema L. Ussery II is the president & CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and chief executive officer of HDNet, the nation's first high definition television network. Born and raised in Watts, Calif., Ussery could have taken a far different path, but he rose above his surroundings to earn degrees from Princeton (1981), Harvard (1984), and a law degree from California-Berkeley (1987). Ussery was general counsel and commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association from 1991-93. He then served as president of Nike Sports Management, where he was responsible for marketing Nike's pro athletes and negotiating contracts. Ussery was hired on April 14, 1997 by Ross Perot, Jr. to turn around the struggling Dallas NBA Mavericks organization. In his first season with the Mavericks, he led the successful campaign to have the Dallas voters approve a several hundred million dollar bond package, which helped fund the construction of the new $430 million American Airlines Center. Ussery was also actively involved in securing the $200 million dollar naming rights partnership with Dallas/Fort Worth-based American Airlines for the downtown facility. Ussery was recently named Black Enterprise’s Co-Executive of the Year, alongside Princeton classmate Steve Mills and one of Sports Illustrated’s 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.
 

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