Mark Cuban and Kevin Pritchard are no class acts
January 19th 2009 05:19
On the left we have a team owner who behaved like a hoodlum like the player he accused of being one and, at the right, we have a general manager who tried to screw a basketball player's career buy e-mailing the rest of the league how desperate they are to save their own hides from a salary cap problem.
Mark Cuban, team owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard have two disturbing stories of how people behind the scenes of NBA teams turn out to become eye sore's for fans and pundits alike.
Cuban, as we all know, is perhaps the most distinguished team owner in the league. He dresses up like an ordinary fan on courtside and is almost always attending his team's games even on the road. He gets so animated that anyone would mistake him for a mere rowdy spectator.
This guy just loves the wrong kind of attention everytime since venturing in the NBA as team owner of the Dallas franchise. Cuban had just been fined for the 14th time for $25,000 recently for "improper interaction" with Denver Nuggets resident brat J.R. Smith in the game won by the Nuggets 99-97. Cuban was also fuming at the call that set up Chauncey Billups for the game winning charities and he had to be escorted off the court after the game.
What tumult! That is what Cuban is all about. he loves getting worked up in the game or outside of it. He also had a case filed against him early this season for illegal transactions. Never really followed how that issue went but it sure proved that Cuban is the type of guy who constantly finds himself in trouble inside or outside of the league.
So how do we assess Cuban's recent actions in the Dallas-Denver game? Two words: SORE LOSER! He has been criticizing NBA officials and referees since way back and he will never view the game in a different perspective ever. His compulsive ways are not just seen on the court but also on his team management decisions, the most glaring of which is the trading of Devin Harris to New Jersey and the firing of Avery Johnson. Now he finds his team struggling at ninth spot in the Western Confereence and are in danger of becoming a lottery team again after a long time being playoff contenders. The emergence of the Nuggets and the Blazers in the West have made the Mavs' task much harder and they have to hurdle the Utah Jazz for eight spot in the conference.
Cuban's Mavericks are still a good team but the Western Conference is just stacked in terms of competition. An old yet talented line-up may not be enough to truly win themselves a championship ever. Now Cuban gets worked up because he can't accept the fact that he screwed his own team big time and they cannot stay in even keel with the NBA's elite anymore.
The Portland Trail Blazers has a very good and young team. Led by former Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers are at 24-16 and are at the thick of things in the Western Conference.
But in dismay, their GM isn't much of a role model nowadays.
Kevin Pritchard was well aware that their past demons came back to haunt them as Darius Miles was signed by the Memphis Grizzlies. Should Miles play 10 games back, $18 million comes back to the Blazers salary cap clogging all cap space available.
So what did good ol' Kev do to fend off the Miles ghost? He e-mailed all of the other 29 teams in the league threatening to sue anybody if they sign Miles. What!? Sue a team that wants to sign an able player? What kind of stupid thing is that? The NBA is supposed to be an association why is Pritchard making a nuisance of it by making such a threat?
It turned out as just a bluff something that the Grizzlies didn't buy. Miles was signed and played quite well. At 27, Miles is definitely not yet done with his career. He could even be signed for a better contract just in case Memphis can't give him much more than a 10-day contract.
There are actually more stories about how Portland eased out of the $40 million plus Miles contract sending the player into retirement because of injury just for the purpose of making room for cap space.
Pritchard should have accepted the consequences of his decisions and shouldn't have acted like a non-professional with dumb-ass arrogance. Saying that they're gonna sue someone... such an unacceptable act. Hopefully their GM's stupid ways will not affect the Blazers team in entirety.
But anyways, we cannot avoid people like Cuban and Pritchard who doesn't care as long as they have authority within their organization at their own disposal.
Mark Cuban, team owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard have two disturbing stories of how people behind the scenes of NBA teams turn out to become eye sore's for fans and pundits alike.
Cuban, as we all know, is perhaps the most distinguished team owner in the league. He dresses up like an ordinary fan on courtside and is almost always attending his team's games even on the road. He gets so animated that anyone would mistake him for a mere rowdy spectator.
Mark Cuban... nuff said
This guy just loves the wrong kind of attention everytime since venturing in the NBA as team owner of the Dallas franchise. Cuban had just been fined for the 14th time for $25,000 recently for "improper interaction" with Denver Nuggets resident brat J.R. Smith in the game won by the Nuggets 99-97. Cuban was also fuming at the call that set up Chauncey Billups for the game winning charities and he had to be escorted off the court after the game.
What tumult! That is what Cuban is all about. he loves getting worked up in the game or outside of it. He also had a case filed against him early this season for illegal transactions. Never really followed how that issue went but it sure proved that Cuban is the type of guy who constantly finds himself in trouble inside or outside of the league.
So how do we assess Cuban's recent actions in the Dallas-Denver game? Two words: SORE LOSER! He has been criticizing NBA officials and referees since way back and he will never view the game in a different perspective ever. His compulsive ways are not just seen on the court but also on his team management decisions, the most glaring of which is the trading of Devin Harris to New Jersey and the firing of Avery Johnson. Now he finds his team struggling at ninth spot in the Western Confereence and are in danger of becoming a lottery team again after a long time being playoff contenders. The emergence of the Nuggets and the Blazers in the West have made the Mavs' task much harder and they have to hurdle the Utah Jazz for eight spot in the conference.
Cuban's Mavericks are still a good team but the Western Conference is just stacked in terms of competition. An old yet talented line-up may not be enough to truly win themselves a championship ever. Now Cuban gets worked up because he can't accept the fact that he screwed his own team big time and they cannot stay in even keel with the NBA's elite anymore.
The Portland Trail Blazers has a very good and young team. Led by former Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers are at 24-16 and are at the thick of things in the Western Conference.
But in dismay, their GM isn't much of a role model nowadays.
Kevin Pritchard was well aware that their past demons came back to haunt them as Darius Miles was signed by the Memphis Grizzlies. Should Miles play 10 games back, $18 million comes back to the Blazers salary cap clogging all cap space available.
Kevin Pritchard had better live with the consequences of his actions: No cap space for you!
So what did good ol' Kev do to fend off the Miles ghost? He e-mailed all of the other 29 teams in the league threatening to sue anybody if they sign Miles. What!? Sue a team that wants to sign an able player? What kind of stupid thing is that? The NBA is supposed to be an association why is Pritchard making a nuisance of it by making such a threat?
It turned out as just a bluff something that the Grizzlies didn't buy. Miles was signed and played quite well. At 27, Miles is definitely not yet done with his career. He could even be signed for a better contract just in case Memphis can't give him much more than a 10-day contract.
There are actually more stories about how Portland eased out of the $40 million plus Miles contract sending the player into retirement because of injury just for the purpose of making room for cap space.
Pritchard should have accepted the consequences of his decisions and shouldn't have acted like a non-professional with dumb-ass arrogance. Saying that they're gonna sue someone... such an unacceptable act. Hopefully their GM's stupid ways will not affect the Blazers team in entirety.
But anyways, we cannot avoid people like Cuban and Pritchard who doesn't care as long as they have authority within their organization at their own disposal.
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