Mark Cuban is a smart man. He’s made billions of dollars off his entrepreneurial maneuverings. Cuban also really cares about his basketball organization. His own fandom for his team is even somewhat admirable. It is for a lot of NBA fans their favorite trait about him.
When Cuban acquired a downtrodden Dallas Mavericks franchise, like most other investments he made, he decided to dump a ton of money into it. Really, before Cuban’s era at Dallas began the Mavericks were a rather wretched, poorly run and unimportant franchise within the NBA. So, again, give Mark Cuban the hat tip for caring, working and striving to make Dallas one of the better run organizations in the entire NBA — because it’s likely much easier to see what’s been done than it was to actually accomplish.
I write all of that because Cuban’s desire, joy and love for all things related to the Dallas Mavericks needs to be emphasized. He’s essentially a giant fan of the team. A fan who also just so happens to own and help operate the entire shebang. He’s naturally biased for it, and will lose some sense of logic while discussing things that happen to his, ugh, baby.
This WILL be relevant later in this column…I promise.
That said, Mark Cuban needs to let go of this ongoing drama-filled obsession he has with DeAndre Jordan. The latter, who was going to go play for Cuban but opted last minute not to, is a good basketball player. One that, during the offseason, Cuban tabbed as a major addition to his team — a guy he hoped would help the Dirk Nowitzki era end relatively happily.
In an oddly — probably too — famous story now, Jordan decided to rejoin the Clippers while apparently leaving Cuban hanging in the wind. Sure, it could’ve all been better handled on Jordan’s end, yet it isn’t as if the center went to Cuban’s house, told him he wanted to get married, then cheated on him with Chris Paul. He simply changed his mind. You know, things we tend to do every single day. Mostly for small things like deciding on lunch, but sometimes for things as important as career-altering decisions. Nevertheless, it was Jordan’s life and he made a call which would effect his the most…and, yes, it certainly altered Cuban’s as well.
Mark Cuban hasn’t been happy since. He’s gone out of his way to belittle DeAndre Jordan with passive aggressive remarks, now claiming he hasn’t deleted the two’s texts between each other as if one day he’ll ruin Jordan by releasing them, and is moving on from this debacle at a similar speed it took me to get over my first grade girlfriend when she dumped me (damn you, Gretchen!).
Mind you, Cuban is the same guy who passed on Uber. He thought it was a silly idea. His lack of foresight cost him millions upon millions of dollars. Whenever he’s been asked about if he regretted the decision, while admitting it was his biggest business mistake, Cuban has been on record stating he doesn’t worry about it all that much. A no regrets type of thing. Yet he’s holding a grudge against a player who decided last minute to play for another team? It’s a sign of his ultimate fandom — which, again, is somewhat admirable. Well, until it isn’t.
Thing is, Cuban isn’t only a fan. His sole purpose isn’t to sit in the stands, scream random things and go on radio programs to discuss the future of the Mavericks, he’s also there to run the franchise. Showing the bitterness he has after being spurned by Jordan as if a former lover jolted isn’t best for business. It’s something that some — not all — future free agents might see then ponder if playing under someone who’s as unstable as Cuban would be worth it.
This is where a separation for Cuban should probably take place. After all, he’s a businessman. There’s a sense of loyalty he probably feels guys like Dirk has for him and he has for them. Then again, Jordan had no reason to show such a thing, as he was testing free agency and had no previous working relationship with the owner, and to Jordan he made a personal and business decision. Jordan did what he thought was best for him.
Regardless of how poorly he handled it, that’s not a decision one person can judge another on. No one single person can tell another person how to properly live their life or fulfill whatever needs and wants they may have — though we try mighty hard to do that all the time on the mean streets of Twitter.
Now we have reached such a strange, weird and nearing on banjos playing in the background while Ned Beatty is getting, well you know, place in this story that we have Chandler Parsons commenting on the entire thing after Dallas beat the Clippers on Wednesday night.
According to a variety of reporters and outlets, Parsons took this jab at Jordan because nothing says having the guy who pays your check’s back like taking weird, mostly misguided shots at a person you really have no need going after.
That’s obviously not the direct fault of Cuban, but make no bones about it; had Mark Cuban acted a wee-bit more like a sane person and less like a person lacking objectiveness in Jordan’s business decision, Parsons is making no such comment.
We are at what should be an impasse for Cuban. He’s somehow turned what are probably — at least, mostly — ho-hum texts between he and Jordan into some sort of blackmail or promise of a threat or something. Really, the hell if i know. Nevertheless, it’s strange. Cuban is an adult. He’s a great businessman and a really good NBA owner. Why is he doing this? Is he that scorned?
While I don’t always agree with his antics, there’s no denying how good he’s been for the sport from an overall perspective. Yet, here and there, some ugliness shines through, especially whenever Cuban doesn’t get his way. There could be a multitude of reasons for that — ones you can guess as you may, as I’m not prepared to travel down ‘that’ wormhole — but those troublesome behaviors have been accepted by far too many people who enjoy Cuban the ambassador of the NBA more than delving into some of the inconvenient, more complex truths that sometimes surround him.
None of this is to say that Mark Cuban is a bad guy. It’s simply a way to point out how immature he’s been throughout this debacle. I wouldn’t let my four-year-old daughter harp on such a relatively little grievance as someone else deciding they wanted something she didn’t for this long. Hell, even she wouldn’t want to. Not as much as Cuban has with this entire DeAndre Jordan thing. And my daughter isn’t worth billions of dollars…but she does have a robo-kitty-thing. So whatever.
Enough words have been written by me — a grown man — telling another grown man to let another grown man be. That’s it. We all need my daughter to send us to our corners to learn sharing, caring and respect. Mostly you, though, Cuban.
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