Mark Cuban Reams Underachieving Mavericks in Email
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spends a lot of money on players, and state-of-the-art facilities for those players to practice and train in, and high-end hookers for those players to enjoy when they’re at home and on the road…and all he expects in return is a winning team. Unfortunately, lately, Cuban hasn’t been getting much of a return on his investment: The Mavs have slid to 8th in the West, just two games above the Phoenix Suns; and Monday night the team suffered perhaps its most ignominious defeat of the year, losing to the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder who were without their best scorers Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. You can imagine about how well Mr. Cuban took this loss.
Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because Mark is perfectly happy to tell you, via email. “It’s only one game, which I keep reminding myself of today,” Cuban ranted in his message to the media. “But let’s just say I wasn’t happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks.
“If each player can’t take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season. The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back. I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.
“This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that’s only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it’s important.”
Did he just say he would turn over the roster 100%? Trade or cut every single player? Even his former lover Dirk Nowitzki? Even Josh “Michael Phelps Has Nothing on Me” Howard? Even Jason Kidd, the guy who was supposed to be the last piece in the puzzle but has actually turned out to be just another brick in the crumbling Mavericks wall?
Clearly, Mark does not enjoy losing. Which leads one to wonder: Why exactly did he want to buy the Cubs? Isn’t one franchise that can’t get it done in the post season enough?
