The infamous tenure of former Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien had many low moments.
One of them was when Stepien invited a local reporter to his home to watch pornography.
Joe Vardon and Jason Lloyd of The Athletic looked at Stepien’s attempt at creating a Cavaliers dance team and cited Akron Beacon Journal writer Sheldon Ocker’s interview request that led Stepien to deliver his jarring offer.
“Come over Sunday after church,” Stepien reportedly told Ocker. “We’ll sit out by the pool and watch porn.”
While Ocker did end up going to Stepien’s home, he was told that Stepien was at a local nightclub for tryouts of the dance team that would be known as the Teddi-Bears.
After Ocker arrived, he watched the selection process unfold, with Stepien making a number of crude comments about some of the contestants.
Though the Teddi-Bears performed at Cavaliers games, Stepien’s disastrous ownership of the Cavs resulted in dwindling crowds that often took out their frustrations by booing the women.
Stepien’s incompetence as an owner was immortalized by the NBA.
The league established the so-called “Stepien Rule,” which bans teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive years. That was created in the wake of Stepien and his front office gutting trading away an array of the Cavs’ top selections.
