Mavs’ Cuban is a bully just like Trump
CThe Dallas Morning News ontrary to popular belief, I don’t wake up planning to write or tweet or talk about Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. I really do feel like I have other things to do. But ignoring his persistent bullying isn’t something I plan to do anytime soon, either.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Billionaire owner, his fame enhanced by a network reality show, comes across something he doesn’t like and takes to Twitter. Proceeds to issue threats, bully those he doesn’t like, perhaps even strip media credentials because, having surrounded himself with “yes” men, no one dares tell him that he’s out of line or that his money can’t buy him whatever he pleases.
Oh, wait, does this apply to someone besides Cuban? I’m confused, I thought that guy was Cuban’s nemesis.
It’s a shame that, at a time the Mavericks are becoming both younger and more interesting, the team’s owner feels compelled to call attention to himself with an angry expletive-laced attack on the president of Turner Sports because—get this— someone had the audacity on Twitter to make fun of a Dirk Nowitzki air ball.
I mean surely that’s the most outrageous thing that’s ever been captured on Twitter, right? Poking fun at a great player—obviously something Cuban and the Mavericks would never stoop to on the video screen of the American Airlines Center.
It would be fine if Cuban simply called out Bleacher Report and expressed his dismay, but, as we have learned through the years, Cuban doesn’t do subtle. For this assault on Nowitzki’s character—Dirk is the most self-deprecating superstar on Twitter but let’s not let that get in the way of a fuming Cuban—he insisted that it be removed and suggested someone be fired for posting it.
And, sure enough, as is too often the case with bullies, Cuban got his way. Following a meek reply from the Turner official, the post disappeared. No word yet on whether anyone was removed from the payroll.
It’s interesting that when Cuban did something similar at the start of the season—yanking the credentials of ESPN’s Marc Stein and Tim MacMahon—he said it was because he cares so much about journalism and wants to make sure ESPN doesn’t start sending robots out to perform humans’ beat writing chores.
That day may, in fact, be coming but I have not yet heard of a robot who knows how to get the VIP rate at a Courtyard Marriott.
In that case, ESPN also gave in rather quickly in order to have the media credentials restored, but what was at stake was so small it required something short of capitulation by the worldwide leader. What really bothered Cuban at the time was ESPN’s decision to shift MacMahon’s duties to incorporate other teams.
That was an understandable decision to everyone except those who think a specious sellout streak suggests the Mavs have lost no ground in the battle for D-FW sports fans’ attention.
As was reported last week, the Mavericks have lost a larger percentage of their local TV audience than any team in the NBA this season. Whether it’s a very unscientific Twitter poll or just personal emails and texts, a negative fan reaction toward Cuban’s rants clearly plays a significant role in the defection.
Cuban can’t just say he doesn’t like a tweet. He has to threaten to “communicate with millennials in the way I know how to.” I don’t even know what that means—some sort of mass Cyber dusting?
Cuban said he didn’t bother to ask Nowitzki if this Bleacher Report video bothered him. “It didn’t matter,” Cuban told ESPN radio. “I thought maybe I was overreacting so I went and looked at the replies. There weren’t any
LOLs.”
Oh, well, good heavens. That’s how I make a decision—examine the comments under any story or tweet and if they aren’t positive, then I drop an expletive on the chairman of the board.
He doesn’t limit himself to media foes, of course. The NBA’s referees union has filed a complaint with the league office this season about Cuban’s most tiresome trait, his endless ref-baiting. The complaint included his profanity toward officials and an allegation that he bragged about getting an official fired. According to the report in The Vertical, “Security guards at the arena remarked to officials that Mr. Cuban conducts himself in this manner every night because he knows nothing will happen to him.”
Hard to argue with any of that if you’ve wandered into a Mavericks game the last 17 years.
The young Mavs are getting better. Seth Curry, Nerlens Noel and Harrison Barnes are worth applauding. But the guy next to the bench just keeps driving the audience away, and no one in the Mavs’ organization is about to tell him to cool it.