Mark Cuban's rants

[JSngry]

Local opinion as I've been getting it is near-unanimous that the Mavs are a gutless bunch who stabbed their coach in the back by reverting to Nelly Ball when crunch time came. To those who haven't followed the team all season and seen the difference (and the difference in tangible results) between Nelly Ball and Avery Ball, this might seem like so much whining, but believe me (or not) when I tell you that this wasn't just a case of inexperience or anything like that. Thses guys had proclaimed all season long that Avery Ball was the way to go, and the results proved them right. Then, when it came time to make the point once and for all, they backed off the committment for 3 7/8 consecutive games.

Backstabbing cowards, that's what they proved to be. Unless and until they can prove otherwise, that's how me and a lot of other locals are looking at them.

Big Al excepted, of course.

[Big Al]

Backstabbing cowards, that's what they proved to be. Unless and until they can prove otherwise, that's how me and a lot of other locals are looking at them.

Big Al excepted, of course.

That's right!

Come on, Bruce: Dallas a crybaby team? No more so than the Spurs who did nothing but hammer on Dallas all throughout the Finals. You want backstabbing cowards, take all those Spurs fans who were rooting for Miami! Gutless crowd, that!

Now I WILL grant you that a lot of Dallas fans, media, a certain unnamed owner (who, despite his rants to the contrary, whined like hell throughout the playoffs) and a certain unnamed poster from Arlington, TX (whose username rhymes with "fig pal" ) blew a lot of the officiating way out-of-proportion. But the Mavs themselves? Yeah, a little; but not near as much as the folks surrounding them.

Edited June 26, 2006 by Big Al

[BruceW]

Backstabbing cowards, that's what they proved to be. Unless and until they can prove otherwise, that's how me and a lot of other locals are looking at them.

Big Al excepted, of course.

That's right!

Come on, Bruce: Dallas a crybaby team? No more so than the Spurs who did nothing but hammer on Dallas all throughout the Finals. You want backstabbing cowards, take all those Spurs fans who were rooting for Miami! Gutless crowd, that!

Now I WILL grant you that a lot of Dallas fans, media, a certain unnamed owner (who, despite his rants to the contrary, whined like hell throughout the playoffs) and a certain unnamed poster from Arlington, TX (whose username rhymes with "fig pal" ) blew a lot of the officiating way out-of-proportion. But the Mavs themselves? Yeah, a little; but not near as much as the folks surrounding them.

Hey Big Al,

How much of that quote are you attributing to me. Yeah I said Dallas is a dirty team but you included your reference to that with references to things other posters have said, not me. So, I will once again adddress the "dirty" playing Dallas Mavs. I have said every team knows how to take out a player if and when they want to. I have said elbows, feet and fists are used by Dallas players, and in the playoffs and caught on camera but I never called them backstabbing cowards. So what if the Spurs rooted for Miami, they did not have an obligation to root for Dallas what was so bad about that. I am sure a whole lot of other teams were not rooting for Dallas either; so what has rooting for another team have to do with the price of tea in China? Dallas plays dirty and Mark Cuban needs to shut up. My personal take is that he HURTS the team more than he helps them by doing that. Terry needs to get ahold of his professional morals when it comes to "nut fisting" and "nut kicking" an opposing player. Other than that, he is and is going to be a great player. Just don't try to tell me the great "untouchable" Dirk, does not use his elbows at critical moments in the game. (Yes, and a whole lot of other guys on other teams do the same). AND he shifts his feet a whole damn lot before dribbling. If they called traveling all the time the way it is defined, he would never get off a shot that he initiates from a standstill.

Okay enough said. Once again I say don't fret, Dallas is good, can be better, and will be better next year now that they have been to the Finals and experienced those terrible losses. Just stop the fucking crying.

[Big Al]

Eh, that's cool. I was just reacting to you saying that Dallas was a crybaby team and a dirty team. I don't think they are any more or any less of a dirty team than anyone else in the league. And again, I believe that in the end, the only real crying and whining came more from the media, the fans (me included), and ESPECIALLY Cuban. Not nearly so much the players.

That said, there was this interesting item in today's paper:

If Cuban won't listen to writers, how about his superstar player?

By Jim Reeves

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

We rag him too much, he'll just buy the newspaper and fire us all, right?

But this time it's not just some know-nothing sportswriter popping off. This time it's his star player who is telling him, in so many words, to just shut up.

Any chance that Cuban might actually listen when it's Dirk Nowitzki telling him that he's hurting his team?

At first blush, I'd say not a chance. The man is stubborn and set in his ways.

But he's also smart. You have to give him that. So maybe, just maybe, he'll listen and learn.

Maybe.

"He's got to learn to control himself as well as the players do," Nowitzki told reporters Friday. "We can't lose our temper all the time, on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too.

"He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game."

Dirk was doing his best to answer reporters' questions candidly and honestly without totally ripping Cuban to pieces for his disruptive antics during the Mavs' Finals loss to Miami. Nowitzki sandwiched lavish praise on Cuban around his remarks about the owner's boorish behavior toward the officials. But he was also intent on making his point.

Cuban, for all his passion for the Mavericks, isn't helping them when he antagonizes the entire league. He isn't helping them when he risks uniting the officials against his team.

Can't happen? Hey, the officials are only human, something Dirk at least seems to understand.

"[Cuban] sits right there over by our bench, too. Sometimes I think that's a bit much," Dirk said. "But we all told him this before, it's not rocket science.

"The game starts, and he's already yelling at them. He needs to learn how to control himself a little better. If somebody's in your ear constantly...I'd be [ticked] off if I were an official. I think he needs to calm down a little bit."

Cuban, to his credit, reacted calmly and sensibly to Dirk's criticism. If only he could do the same during games. "When it's all said and done," Cuban wrote in an e-mail to our Art Garcia, "we all do our jobs the best we can in the best way we know how."

Of course, it's Cuban's passion that has made him probably the best owner of a professional sports franchise in Dallas-Fort Worth, or at least 1 and 1A with Jerry Jones. He has rebuilt a moribund franchise into a winner. He will spend whatever it takes, do whatever it takes, to win.

It's no wonder that his players love him. He treats them like royalty.

What else can we ask for in an owner? Nothing...except, perhaps, a little decorum and self-control on and around the court.

Cuban's dilemma is that he's still as much fan as he is owner, and that's a dangerous mix. The fiery passion of the fan can easily override the (normally) good judgment of the owner.

Dirk isn't saying anything that others around the Mavs haven't been saying privately for a long time. He's saying things that Don Nelson couldn't say, that Donnie Nelson can't say, that Avery Johnson can't say.

Just shut up once in a while. Help us, don't hurt us.

What's Cuban going to do, fire Dirk?

Nowitzki said that a few years ago he, Michael Finley and Steve Nash got together to try to convince Cuban he might be better off in a suite, away from the court.

From there, he could yell and curse to his heart's content.

"But you guys know Mark. He loves it," Dirk said. "He loves it down there.

"We tried to get him up [in a suite] for a couple of games, and he's too fired up. He has to be in the mix. We love that about him, too, but just every once in a while he needs to relax a little bit."

Or maybe a whole lot.

All of this is not to say that the Mavs lost the NBA championship because of Cuban. Far from it. And there's some irony to Nowitzki, who didn't exactly step up and put the Mavs on his shoulders in the final three games, even lightly scolding Cuban for hurting his team. Nothing Cuban did hurt the Mavs as much as his players turning into The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight. (emphasis by your truly)

"Obviously we live with who he is," Nowitzki said of his boss. "We love him that way, but do I think it's good for us always? No."

Cuban has worked so hard to put the Mavs into a position to win a championship, is it too much to ask that he apply the same diligence to his own behavior?

"Excellence defined is excellence demanded," Cuban wrote in one of his blogs recently. "It's not always easy to fulfill, but there is one constant in my approach to the Mavs that hasn't changed since the minute I walked in the door in January of 2000. That my job was to put every single one of our players, and the organization in a position to succeed. That I would work hard, continuously, to get better at doing so, and I think I have.

"I think we have become a much smarter organization. We have learned from what we have done right, and what we have done wrong."

Consider this, then, another excellent learning opportunity.

And don't forget to bring your 7-foot "teacher" a shiny, fresh apple.

Edited July 2, 2006 by Big Al

[BruceW]

Well Big Al,

Thanks for that article. I didn't think I was a blow hard. Seems the verdict is in on Cuban's antics. If only he would take that and learn, I mean really learn from that, Dallas will be much better. He seems to mistake his antics for enthusiam that the team will accept and they won't, they are embarrassed by it and it is definitely dificult to play a top level NBA type game when you are being embarrassed by your owner at the same time and space.

Having said that, good luck to you and your team next season.

peace Bruce

[Big Al]

Nah, you weren't a blowhard, I know. Just a couple guys talkin' trash is all!

[JSngry]

Yeah, it really takes guts to mildly dis your boss when you know that your job is more than secure.

About as much guts as it takes to turn in a pussyriffic performance in the NBA finals. Less, even.

Yeah, you go Dirk. Gutless motherfucker.

[Big Al]

At least someone said it. Needs to be said more often.

[JSngry]

Well yeah, Cuban needs to know when to chill.

Now, let's give Dirk some more bold statements to make during the off-season.

Lessee...

People shouldn't drive drunk.

Don't forget to hug your kids.

It takes more effort to frown than it does to smile.

I'm sure there's more.

Go Dirk, go.

[JSngry]

And yeah, I'm a bit of a bitter SOB when it comes to choke jobs and the people who perpetrate them.

[Big Al]

I'm just waiting for Cuban to come back with:

Your star shouldn't keep resorting to jumpers that never fall!

[Big Al]

Looks like Mark left his brains on the floor of the AAC......

Cuban is not thinking straight

by Jennifer Floyd Engel

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

What in the world is Mavs owner Mark Cuban thinking? Is he thinking?

He's not. He can't be.

If Cuban was thinking, or thinking straight, there would be no mounting tension between him and Mavs coach Avery Johnson like S-T beat man Art Garcia reported in Sunday's paper. Certainly not about something as simple as whether to renegotiate the NBA Coach of the Year's contract as a reward for leading this Mavs team to within two victories of an NBA title.

This is a no-brainer. Just do it.

Cuban obviously doesn't agree because contract renegotiations were started and then broken off with Avery's camp. Neither side sounds particularly happy either.

In response to my e-mail trying to determine what exactly is going on, Cuban called the story "ridiculous."

He did not elaborate when asked what portion he felt to be wrong; that he is unwilling to renegotiate Avery's deal or that failure to do so may create or already has created problems between them.

What I found "ridiculous" was Avery's pay ranks in the bottom third of NBA coaches, he is the lowest paid of the Western Conference playoff coaches, Cuban chose this moment with his coach to get randomly tough and randomly cheap, and he does not think Avery is worth the $1.5 million necessary to get him on par with Wizards coach Eddie Jordan.

So I e-mailed Cuban to ask: "What does it hurt to reward Avery for a good year?"

"Time to take a business class, Jen," he responded.

Fair enough. My "A" in Walter Johnson's statistics class, my lone business offering at Mizzou, was a long time ago. Let's make a deal, though, Mark. If I enroll in Cuban's School of Business, you have to take Common Sense 101.

Lesson 1: Do not tick off your most valuable employee.

Lesson 2: Do not draw a line in the sand with arguably the most popular sports personality going in Texas because you will lose. Especially now with plenty of Mavs precincts still fuming about your boorish Finals behavior.

Homework: Quit screwing around. Pick up your phone. Call Avery. Ask him how many millions, four or five, sound good to him. Then say, "In appreciation for everything you did this season, I'd be happy to pay that number." Sign the deal. Start sending bigger checks.

If nothing else, it is a just reward for Avery dealing with Cuban's Finals antics and at least publicly defending him while Mavs players like Dirk Nowitzki were openly critical.

Not that it hurt Dirk.

Nowitzki has two years remaining on his contract and already Cuban has been talking extension. His logic is sound. He wants to get his best player locked up to show his appreciation and to keep from getting in a bidding war in free agency.

So why not do the same for Avery? He was the MVP of the Mavs last season. Hands down.

It is almost like Cuban has taken a page from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' book, thinking "500 coaches" are capable of doing what Avery did. We all know how that ended for Jerry. Say this for him, though, he had enough smarts to win two Super Bowl titles before picking a fight with Jimmy Johnson.

What Cuban is doing is picking a fight on the honeymoon of what has the potential to be a really great relationship, a relationship that ends with NBA championships and parades. Plural.

And over what? Money? Principle?

Cuban provided insight into his thoughts on renegotiating contracts in an entry on his blog titled "Paying bonuses and Managing...some thoughts."

"Now if you are a person that does just that. Challenges yourself. Excels. Makes the company more competitive, our customers happier and our bottom line bigger, should you automatically get a bonus?" Cuban wrote.

"Of course not. You are doing exactly what you were hired to do. You were hired to be great. You are expected to do great things. We pay you to do just that. You don't deserve a bonus."

Cuban has a point, to a point. Too much redoing of contracts exists in sports nowadays.

Look no further than T.O.

Everybody's favorite Cowboy agreed to and signed a very lucrative deal with Philadelphia, and a year later he felt he deserved more. Philly drew a line in the sand and insisted he honor his deal as signed.

Cuban has every right to do this as well. And judging by a not-so-subtle "conversation" between himself and a random "employee" on his blog, this is exactly what awaits Avery:

"employee: I just did something great. I want a bonus because I did something great.

"Me : I know. It's wonderful. You are wonderful. Which is exactly why I hired you. I expect you do to great things and I pay you to do great things. Don't you remember telling me how great you were when we interviewed you?

"employee: Yes, but shouldn't I get a bonus?

"Me: No. But if you keep on doing great things, you will get far more opportunities and we will both hopefully benefit from that."

Hmmm. Do you think little "e" is really Little G?

Do you think what Cuban was really trying to blog was, "Hey, Avery, you have three years remaining at approximately $2.5 million per season on your deal, live up to your deal?"

Me, too.

The question remains: Why?

Why, if you have this hot, young coach who has almost single-handedly pushed your team to another level -- who, if you do not screw it up, is going to lead your team to a championship -- do you not double his salary to $5 million a year willingly? Why not insist upon it?

The only reason I can think of is Cuban is not thinking.

Edited July 24, 2006 by Big Al