That not withstanding, even in the middle of the Spurs/Mavs playoff series, I feel a certain calling to come to his defense - something, by the way, the Mavs only recently learned was part of the game of basketball.
Yesterday, the NBA fined Cuban $200,000. When you're worth mega zillions like Cuban, that is the equivalent of demanding the late Marlon Brando fork over a skin cell - when he was alive of course, I imagine by now Marlon's skin cell stash has depleted a great deal...at least I hope so. Okay, I really don't want to imagine that at all - (shudder).
Anyway, I digress.
Half of that fine was for one of Cuban's usual maniac-like maneuvers where he ran onto the court during the first game in the current Spurs/Mavs series. Everyone knows that's a no-no. Cuban isn't a player. He's not a coach. He's an NBA owner and simply because he is writing checks for millions of dollars for almost half the people who were on the court during that game he still doesn't have the right to actually put his Nikes on that hallowed hardwood.
The other half of the fine -$100,000 -was for "a posting on his blog."
Really.
The NBA fined him more money than probably everyone reading this post makes in a year...or three...for writing a blog entry.
Now, no one will dispute that Cuban has been a thorn in the side - and many would argue for a lower anatomical positioning - of the NBA since the first day he became an owner. He's challenged everything the league does at every turn - which I personally find refreshing and in truth think the NBA should consider paying people to do - so the excessiveness of the fine is partially due to his history....but $100,000 for writing something on his blog?
I can already hear some of you saying, "Well, he probably wrote something really incendiary like calling NBA Commissioner David Stern a Yoda look-alike."
He didn't.
There's not a degrading remark, curse word, or even a reference to David Stern's oversized head anywhere in the post.
Cuban instead wrote what I at least consider a rather thoughtful piece about how he believes referees should be chosen for the NBA playoffs. You can read it here if you so desire.
It's not really even controversial AND he wrote it before the current playoff series between the Mavs and Spurs began. For those of you who don't follow basketball, let me say that during the last game, 18,000 people inside the AT&T Center in San Antonio were screaming their opinion of the referees and they only used two words...one of which rhymes with "ducks."
In the grand scheme of things this entire hullabaloo means nothing...Cuban probably earned more than $200,000 since I started writing this, and the NBA has really only succeeded in getting more people to read what Cuban wrote.
Still...a $100,000 fine for writing something on your blog?
Blow the whistle!
Somebody missed the call on this one...for flagrant lunacy.
