Mark Cuban: professional hothead

mark cuban’s a very passionate guy. so passionate that he likes to blow lots of things out of proportion and personally attack people. i once called him out for being a a huge hypocrite as he overreacted to the knicks-nuggets incident and he responded to my comment with an email that started with the words: “You are wrong,” following that up with a terribly lame justification for why he wasn’t a huge hypocrite. something about how he was referring to multi-player actions not single-player actions. i guess if one of your players is doing something wrong, then it’s NOT management’s responsibility, but if more than one takes action than it is? anyhow…

today he posted an entry in his blog ripping dwyane wade for taking a shot at dirk nowitzki (who, honestly, has been the definition of a sore loser after the finals last year). let’s look at his comments in full:

I hope Dwayne Wade was misquoted in an article today in the Miami Herald. I know the Herald has issues with accuracy and they are still probably looking for the boat I dont own in Miami, but according to the Herald, and i have a hard time thinking even the Herald could get this quote wrong, Wade said the following:

DIG AT DIRK

After the Heat practiced Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena, Wade was asked if he believes players are ultimately remembered for what they do at the end of games.

Wade, who usually is selective and subtle with his criticisms of opposing players, took the opportunity to take a jab at Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, who has failed to give the Heat credit for beating the Mavericks in the Finals last season.

”At the end of the day,” Wade said, “you’re remembered for what you did at the end. . . . I think that’s the reason — Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he’s the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn’t the leader that he’s supposed to be in the closing moments. That’s because of great defense by us, but also he wasn’t assertive enough as a leader’s supposed to be.”

up to here i was seeing cuban’s point. that is quite the directed quote at cuban’s player. to be fair, dirk has been very un-complimentary about losing in the championship last year. he has repeatedly said that they “gave” the heat the finals, which is generally considered “a bitch move” in the sports world. that being said, wade knows better than to make comments like that. surely he’s unhappy that dirk is being a huge bitch, but you know what? when you have the ring, nothing else should really matter, should it? it’s a little like getting a promotion at work and being bitter that the one guy you didn’t get along with is talking smack about you while he works in the mailroom (note to mailroom workers everywhere, i didn’t mean anything by that). anyhow, back to mr. cuban, because this is when he really “takes the gloves off”:

Say what ? Is this the DWade of some of the lamest , boring commercials known to man ? Commercials that are singlehandedly responsible for selling more commercial skipping Tivos than anything else on TV ?

um, what? i don’t really know that people dislike wade’s commercials that much. in fact, most people really like that “fall seven times” spot, even though it doesn’t make any sense (aside: i’ve had several 15-minute conversations about this commercial. if you only fall seven times, why would you have to get up eight times? is the eighth symbolic of “getting up” for a dunk? i don’t know. i need to know these things.). but even if the commercials are boring, what in the world does that have to do with anything? besides just making cuban look like an angry 10 year-old child.

Dwayne I don’t blame you for not looking at tapes of the finals. You obviously didn’t. You would have seen your unbelievable skills and some other unbelievable elements that if I could discuss honestly here I would get fined for.

clearly here cuban is referring to what mavs coaches, players, and fans think was bad officiating during the finals. so you think the refs treated you badly: GET OVER IT. the most annoying thing in sports (and the thing that gets people more angry than anything) is the team that loses and continues crying. people hated it when the colts did this years ago. people hated it when the seahawks did it last season. the truth is that at the end of the day, if you lose, you don’t get to say anything. don’t be a sore loser. grow up.

years ago, there was a guy named michael jordan and he got a lot of calls also. he was more aggressive than other players and eventually refs started giving him the benefit of the doubt because he was, oh, the greatest player ever. but you know what’s funny? you NEVER heard the utah jazz (who played against mike in his last two championships) bitch and moan about it. probably because stockton, malone, hornacek, and the boys were all class acts on the court. maybe the mavs need to take some “how to lose with class” courses.

You are right, endings are remembered. And the ending of 3 of the games of the Finals will be remembered alongside Game 6 of the King vs Lakers Conf Finals a few years ago.

um, unfortunately not mr. cuban. everyone else besides mavs fans have already forgotten what happened, besides the heat winning the series and wade hitting big shots. sorry, that’s just the truth. actually, most people probably don’t even remember that.

I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills.

I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was “embarassing’. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.

You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws.

once again, exhibit W of mr. cuban and the mavs as incredibly sore losers

What you know about Dirk’s leadership skills is non existent.

let me just break up mr. cuban’s string of personal attacks by noting that TERRIBLY written sentence. sorry, that was just KILLING me. back to personal attacks!

You don’t have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills….well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own. Did you take business classes at Marquette ?

this one is my absolute FAVORITE comment because it is SO ridiculous and irrelevant.

Now we know why Charles won’t put you in his 5.

And Im pissed for one more reason. Im going to have to miss our next game against the Heat on Feb 22. A previous engagement. I guess its just a missed opportunity to bring a local business class to the game and try to let them interview you about your leadership skills.

if we were in a writing class, this would be a great example of a horribly-written response to a question/comment. he completely failed to refute the commenter’s opinion by presenting opposing evidence, and then he went off in a direction that was completely orthogonal to the whole topic (”dirk’s not a good leader? well… well… you’re a huge jerk! YOU’RE not a leader!”). clearly mr. cuban has an inability to detach his own personal emotions from objective reasoning. does that make him a good owner? i don’t know. does it make him look like a huge ass? probably. a few weeks ago i wrote about how the patriots fans are making other fans hate the patriots by acting like completely morons. today, i would say that mr. cuban is making other fans hate the mavericks by posting on his blog like a 10 year-old with an 11 year-old’s writing skills.

i officially hate the mavericks now.