Mark Cuban's Apology Too Little, Too Late, Too Lame

For those of you who haven’t watched one of the best, scrappiest, and most ruthless series in this year’s playoffs—Denver vs. Dallas—you've missed a battle that has turned ugly, and in a hurry.

With the Nuggets going up 3-0 on a “non call” by the refs (if Dallas focused on their strategy rather than complaining, they would have gotten the call), Mark Cuban went on a temper tantrum-like rampage that resembled a five-year-old more than an NBA owner on Saturday.

Cuban, who has come to admit it now, reportedly told Kenyon Martin’s mother that her son is a “thug”—on Mother’s Day weekend, nonetheless. In Game Four, the situation spilled into the stands, as Carmelo Anthony’s fiance Lala Vasquez and the couple’s two-year-old son Kiyan had to leave the scene early because of threats.

"What happened on Monday night with the racial slurs/threats, verbal attacks on my son and physical attacks to myself by irate fans was unacceptable. The fans were totally out of control,” Vasquez said in Wednesday’s Denver Post.

Chauncey Billups continued the sentiment Tuesday saying, “I had 10 people out there, and my wife got into it with a couple people. My dad. You’ve got the right to be a fan, but some of that stuff crossed the line.”

All of this bad blood is negative for the NBA, as fans are quick to label players “thugs” but are slow to look at themselves in the same light.

No one should ever physically attack a player’s family, or be allowed to use racial epithets without being kicked out of the game. If a person is found to be a repeat offender, they should be banned from the stadium, and from the NBA as a whole.

Without the stupid, drunken fan in Indiana, Ron Artest would not have been provoked to run into the crowd. While the blame of the incident still falls on Artest, the fan was kicked out of NBA stadiums for life—a good move by the league.

The NBA needs to take a similar stance on coaches—or owners, apparently—who are out of line.

Instead, Cuban released a statement apologizing to Martin and his mother, apparently enough reparation for his egregious remarks. The NBA’s vice president of communications, Tim Frank said, “Mark has reached out to Kenyon and his family. We’re confident that this can be closed intelligently with an adult conversation.”

The problem is, Cuban has shown he is not capable of intelligent adult communication, as he storms around the court after a loss, cursing at referees, calling opponents thugs, and pushing camera men (see 2:25 mark).

In his apology to Martin and his mother—one that took two days to write, evidently—Cuban did ask for forgiveness, but in a peculiar way.

“It started as a comment that no one heard. But at this point, it has become irrelevant. It doesn’t matter why I said it. I shouldn’t have said anything,” Cuban said.

Here he has a great point—nothing should have been said by the owner of the Mavericks. He should not have lowered himself to the level of a drunken life-long fan, but he should have been composed and acted like the professional he is.

Continuing, Cuban said, “No one takes more abuse and gets more threats on the road than I do. So I know exactly how it feels.”

I don’t doubt that Cuban does receive a great amount of threats, but if so, why didn’t he act in a more appropriate way toward Martin’s mother? Instead of communicating like an adult, Cuban took the low road and acted like a child whose feelings had been hurt.  

Cuban finished his apology with an awkward backhanded-like offer saying, “I will make sure when the series comes back to Dallas, your family and fiends, and that of your teammates are very comfortable in our arena.”

It’s as if Cuban took the opportunity in this written apology to take a stab at Martin and the Nuggets team as a whole, eluding that the Mavericks will win Wednesday's game in Denver, forcing the series back to Dallas for Game Six.

But, not to be outdone, and to show that the remarks fanned the flames rather than extinguishing them, Billups said, “We don’t plan on going back to Dallas.” The proverbial “thanks but no thanks” from the Nuggets’ veteran leader.

Cuban not only represents himself when he’s on the court acting a fool, he represents the Mavericks, his business endeavors, and most importantly, Cuban represents the NBA.

How can a league that is so quick to suspend players be so slow-footed and seemingly powerless in a situation such as this?

Cuban is the most immature, wild, and out-of-line owner in all of professional sports, too wealthy for any fine to affect him, so game suspensions should be used as a deterrent for his crazy actions.

Cuban must be forced to miss games if he refuses to act in a mature way. Suspensions have shown to be the only effective way to punish overly-wealthy athletes in today’s game, and the same should be done to out-of-line owners.

Memo to David Stern and the NBA—take a strong stance now as there is only one owner with the guts to act this wildly—if you don’t act sternly now, soon you will have a league full of rambunctious owners on your hands.

We all know nothing is more annoying than the guy who’s too wealthy and self-absorbed to care about how his actions affect others, and Cuban is just that.

More than that though, Cuban is the true “thug” of the NBA. Truly Hopeless in the U.S. general public.