Somebody Please Stop Mark Cuban
The league’s most overrated owner puts his foot in his mouth. Again!
NEWSLETTER HEADS UP: If you liked or were intrigued by my writing on Jerami Grant last week, Zach Lowe of ESPN dropped an interview with Grant the very same day. They go over Grant’s reasons for joining the Pistons, some memorable moments in his career, and what it’s like to play with Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook. Check it out!
The year is 2021. The Dallas Mavericks, led by a generational European superstar, are struggling due to an underwhelming supporting cast, an absence of shot-creators, and a lackluster defense. Owner Mark Cuban has just said something stupid and crass in a vague, misguided attempt at defending his guys. Turning and turning in the widening gyre…
If one needs any more proof that humanity is in a simulation, subject to the whims of some miserable supercomputer that relishes seeing Tom Brady win seven Super Bowls, Dallas seemingly repeating the 2000s in the 2020s is more hard evidence. Head coach Rick Carlisle has been around forever, as has general manager Donnie Nelson. Swap out Dirk Nowitzki with Luka Doncic and instead of Josh Howard frustrating Mav fans, it’s Tim Hardaway Jr. and Kristaps Porzingis. Even if the expectations were a little too high heading into this bizarre imitation of an NBA season, in year 3 of Doncic, Dallas is well on its way to squandering an MVP-level season from its star man. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Worse than the disappointing start—exacerbated by a COVID-19 outbreak that impacted half the roster and a brutal opening schedule—is Cuban, somehow exactly the same despite the passage of time. I thought I had more or less come to terms with Cuban and his rather glowing reception around the league. Often listed as one of the best owners in all of professional sports, Cuban is respected for his charity, high level of involvement, outspokenness, and supposed backing of his players. In a supremely silly article by The Athletic, Cuban ranked as the second-best owner in the league, only finishing behind L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, apparently getting the top spot for nothing other than replacing the reviled Donald Sterling. Ballmer getting the top spot despite being the owner for less than a decade and his team still not being better than the L.A. Lakers is quite illuminating about the sorry state of NBA ownership (they all suck). Anyway.
I’ve never agreed with Cuban being considered a great owner—remaining relatively anonymous is a big part of that—let alone the league’s second best, and his childish outburst against ESPN’s Zach Lowe was an exasperating reminder of what many a Dallas fan perennially feels: the desire to tell Mark to please shut up. Could Lowe, a writer not prone to hot take observations, have been a tad more thoughtful in his criticism of Doncic’s “whining?” Sure, but it doesn’t change the truth of his argument. Cuban’s impassioned defense conveniently avoids the underlying sentiment of Lowe’s point, in that a large part of Doncic’s moaning stems from what he believes are continually missed calls, but also the team around him sucking. The team around him sucking would, uhh, have a lot to do with ownership.
Cuban’s history doesn’t need to be relitigated. Although maybe it does since everybody forgets that history. Any Dallas fan worth their salt will tell you that the Mavericks wasted Nowitzki’s prime, particularly the back half, and the one year they won the title, a stingy Cuban refused to bring back Tyson Chandler and others for a title defense. That one title not only completely altered the narrative of Nowitzki’s career, but it’s also given a ton of cover to an owner who has made a plethora of bad roster decisions over the years. Cuban’s judgment to draft Doncic is noteworthy and does speak to his capacity at ignoring outdated and cliched league-wide storylines. Still, to say he’s done right by either of his stars, one of whom is maybe the most loyal athlete in sports history, is getting it wrong entirely. It doesn’t help that when the roster is ill-fitting or the team withholds spending to be doled out at a later date, it’s patronizingly marketed as an organization that knows what it’s doing. Over twenty years of mediocre ownership propped up by two stellar draft picks, with the Nowitzki pick coming before his time as owner, is all the story really is.
Then there’s everything else. Cuban has an exceptionally long section on his Wikipedia page entitled “NBA fines” that highlights his remarkable ability to say or do foolish things and then follow it up with good PR moves. “Oh, I made fun of Dairy Queen to demean another NBA franchise? Lemme just work for a day at a local DQ.” The whole section is an absurd read, especially when you realize that this is a now 62-year-old man worth billions of dollars who can’t help himself from talking shit. Also, bear in mind that Cuban is not an NBA player and a lot of his fines stem from him barking during games, something that’s accepted in the league given his status as an owner even though basically no other owners do this.
The most damning thing about Cuban, though, is his mishandling of not one, but two separate sexual harassment and domestic violence allegations concerning employees in the Dallas organization. Cuban did end up donating $10 million dollars to organizations centered on women’s causes, an all too comfortable pattern for a billionaire willing to put gobs of money on display to hide his incredible failings. The very thing that has so many people admiring Cuban—his investment in the organization and his commitment to being a day-to-day owner—somehow never harmed him when he was apparently oblivious to the years of sexual harassment happening right under his nose. Suspicious, indeed.
So, his latest unwise outburst isn’t that out of the ordinary and has barely made much news. Cuban can do pretty much whatever he wants. The perks of being a massively wealthy sports team owner in America is that rarely does punishment or responsibility ever find you and, on the oft chance it does, if you throw enough money at it, it’ll probably go away. Time and time again, Cuban’s mouth is writing checks that his ass can cash.
As I enjoyed one of the games of the season Saturday night, a 134-132 win for the Mavs over the Golden State Warriors that featured Steph Curry going for 57 and Doncic for 42, there was Cuban, outfitted in a Barstool Sports hoodie pulling down his mask to jaw at Draymond Green, a guy who has done immeasurably more for the sport than Cuban will ever do. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that even in the midst of a down season and an effing pandemic, Cuban still has to get his licks in. I understand the realities of ownership in the league as constituted and that I would be irritated with whatever jackass is running my favorite team. Damn, though, it’d be nice if they weren’t constantly talking about Bitcoin and the stock market or yakking at a bunch of guys who could kick their ass.
My favorite Cuban-related story is, of course, one that centers on his sideline antics. During the title-winning season, Cuban was yelling at the Mavs for a bad play or something like that. Nowitzki turned to Cuban as he inbounded the ball and shouted “shut the fuck up” at him. Doncic is capable of many things on a basketball court, but he isn’t ready to follow in Dirk’s footsteps there just yet. Nowitzki was, still is, and always will be an idol in Dallas for many reasons. Championship excluded, maybe none are more important than him finally telling Cuban what so many of us have wanted to for years.