A spy tells us that at one point, a fan approached his table and said, “I sure hope the season starts soon, Mark,” to which Cuban raised a shot glass of whiskey and responded, “I’ll drink to that.” — Mark Cuban‘s just livin’ de life
(via Eye On Basketball)
Remember when the Dallas Mavericks won the world championship of the NBA? Me too, but it was like 9 million blog years ago, so it is understandable if you’ve forgotten since then. But it really did happen, and when it did, Mark Cuban said he wasn’t getting rings because “Rings are done. It’s time to take it to the next level.”
Turns out he was getting a little ahead of himself and is going to be boring and get rings just like everybody else. From the Dallas Morning News:
Anyway, Cuban said: “I will get rings, but maybe not quite traditional in one way or another.”
Oh well. It was fun doing Mavericks Photoshops while it lasted. RIP Mavericks crown. RIP Dirk Nowitzki plate. You will be missed.
It’s for the best too. Sure, it would have been cool for the Mavs to get fancy bracelets or something like that, but they probably don’t want to go down in history as the team that didn’t get rings. Basketball players work their whole lives to get their fingers in a ring, so if they had that crowning achievement replaced by an actual crown, they would probably have a little sadness happening. Let them get title belts or fancy belt buckles or embroidered jackets on their own time, but keep the rings on the fings. It’s tradition.
At least Cubes is promising “not quite traditional,” so we’ll be seeing something crazy. There’s no doubt it my mind that Mark Cuban’s going to shell out the dough necessary to get some looney tunes jewelry. Can’t wait to see ‘em.
Love him or hate him, it’d be hard to say that Mark Cuban doesn’t care about the Dallas Mavericks and their fans. He has reportedly lost money in the low nine figures since purchasing the Mavericks in January of 2000, and he seems somewhat nonchalant about it. For example, honoring Muggsy Bogues’ three remaining years of Bogues’ contract even though Cuban didn’t have to. In any case, a big part of Cuban’s losses during his tenure as Mavs owner has to be his ill-fated pursuit of big men to put alongside Dirk Nowitzki.
When Cuban bought the Mavs in the middle of the 1999-2000 season, he inherited a team in disarray. The Mavs hadn’t made the playoffs since 1990 while failing to finish with a .500 or above record. At this juncture, the Mavs were Michael Finley’s team with Nowitzki on the come-up and Steve Nash preparing to make some noise in the NBA. Their big men, however, left a lot to be desired: Shawn Bradley (77 G; 8.4 PPG; 6.5 RPG; 2.5 BPG; 17.0 PER), Sean Rooks (71 G; 4.4 PPG; 3.5 RPG; 0.7 BPG; 11.8 PER) and Bruno Sundov (14 G; 1.9 PPG; 0.9 RPG; 0.1 BPG; 7.8 PER). Obviously, Bradley’s blocks play a big role in his value, but if you’re 7-foot-6 and can’t average that many blocks, well, you’re probably an amputee.
In any case, in his first full season of ownership (2000-01), Cuban had the following center-eligible players: Bradley, Christian Laettner, Juwan Howard, Wang Zhi Zhi and Obinna Ekezie. This collection of bigs was so dissatisfying even Dirk started games at the five spot. However, some sliver of hope came the following season when the Mavericks shipped Howard, Donnell Harvey, Tim Hardaway and a 2002 first round pick to the Denver Nuggets for Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson, Tariq Abdul-Wahad and talented big man Raef LaFrentz.
LaFrentz, selected third overall in the 1998 NBA Draft, averaged 12.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per contest in his first three seasons with the Nuggets. Before being traded to the Mavs, LaFrentz was averaging 14.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and an excellent 18.9 PER in 51 games. He finished the season with 10.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocks per game and a 15.8 PER in 27 games (25 starts) for the Mavericks. He was the only NBA player to amass 100 three-pointers and 200 blocks in the same season. In eight 2002 postseason games, LaFrentz contributed solid numbers — 11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and a 16.1 PER.
LaFrentz was a player that could not only block shots, but he also had a nice offensive game, able to score from the inside and beyond the arc. He wasn’t afraid to bang inside and always gave a strong effort. However, that all said, was it a smart move for Cuban to re-sign LaFrentz during the offseason to a seven-year, $69 million contract?
We did it, you guys. Mark Cuban dropped a “Brian Cardinal is your dad joke” on national television at last night’s prestigious ESPY awards. Give yourselves a hand, Internet.
“You know, every guy on this team, every year, they told me we should trade him, get rid of him, they’re too old, they’re always hurt, they can’t get the job done, who let the dad on the court (Cuban points to Cardinal), who let the baby on the court (points to Barea),” Cuban said, drawing laughs. “You learn over time it’s a very humbling game, but you also learn to trust and belief and care.
I’ll just assume my royalties check is in the mail.
Once upon a time, the Dallas Mavericks choked away an NBA championship then lost a first round series to an eight seed the following year. Because of these two tragic missteps, the Mavs got a reputation as chokers, the kind of bros who might be good enough to get close to a title, only to find a way to blow it.
And, like it or not, Mark Cuban couldn’t help thinking about that as the clock ticked down in Game 6 of the 2011 Finals. From his blog:
I refused to let myself think we were going to win. I refused to get ahead of the game. Too many times I had seen games get away from our team. Too many times I had seen our team snatch away what the other side thought was a sure win. We had come from way behind to win games in every series in this playoff run. If we could do it to them, they could do it to us. In my mind, if I even began to think that a win was a certainty, I would jinx us.
Classic strat right there, refusing to let yourself feel something was real until it was really real. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” basically. Seems to have worked too, since the Mavericks didn’t blow their Game 6 lead, obviously because Mark Cuban intentionally didn’t think about the Mavericks winning the game.
People say Cuban runs a team the way any fan would run a team, and this is the sort of thing that makes that even more true. He cares so much that he allowed himself to believe that what he was thinking about had an effect on the outcome of the game, and that’s pretty fan-ish, if you ask me.
Judging by his propensity for superstition, I’d guess that Cuban probably didn’t change his underwear at all while the Mavs won the last three games of the series. As any fan knows, lucky undies always come through in the clutch.
Yesterday, a bunch of Mark Cuban’s college photos showed up on Google+ because Google knows everything about everyone at all times. Cubes already narrated the photos for Deadspin, so we decided to add our own.
This is from a John Oates impersonation contest where Cuban took third place. The prize was an uncooked dessert.
As you can see from these two pictures, eating with Mark Cuban is always dangerous and disgusting.
Here’s Bill Hupp on Mark Cuban’s first title…
On the night he won his first NBA Championship as owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban will be best remembered not for haranguing refs or delivering a controversial quote, but rather for a simple, classy gesture.
It would have completely understandable if Cuban had chosen to soak up a moment he had no doubt dreamed of, the time when his longtime nemesis, NBA commissioner David Stern, handed him the coveted Larry O’Brien Trophy. Instead, the current team owner nudged the original team owner to the forefront of the stage, insisting 78-year-old Donald Carter be the first to clutch the beloved hardware.
It seems almost ridiculous to insinuate that a man who is nearly 53 years old finally matured after more than a decade of owning his hometown team, but maybe “wisened up” is the more accurate phrase.
Ever the pot-stirrer, the thorn in Stern’s side, Cuban had gone noticeably silent during the playoffs, neither speaking to the media nor posting on his blog since April 12. The owner, like his team, came into the 2011 Finals flying under the radar.
