One of the things I love about Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is that the guy has no filter. I’m not sure which came first, saying whatever comes to mind or becoming a billionaire, but I like that aspect of Cubes’ personality. Anyway, the guy is at the forefront of the emerging technology market and was a pioneer as a celebrity blogger, not to mention twitterer. While defending Charlie Villanueva for twittering at halftime of a Bucks game, Cuban gave us this interesting peak into an NBA locker room. From his interview with the T-Wolves website:

Jonah: Charlie Villanueva made a great point; a Twitter update is about the same as a halftime interview.

Mark: He is right. Before I took over for the Mavs back in the day they used to drink and smoke in the locker room, so I can think of worse things.

The Mavericks were also perennially horsebleep before Cuban took over, so that’s not too much of a surprise. I’m not sure if he’s exaggerating or not, but I would hope that professional athletes have more pride in their job than that. I have heard that Vlade Divac used to smoke in the locker room so I guess for some players they need it, but I can’t imagine that’s too healthy. Furthermore, Dock Ellis did throw a no-hitter on acid, and Gary McLain snorted coke for Villanova during the Final Four, so maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Scratch that, alcohol and athletics don’t mix unless it’s slow pitch softball, but then again, we are talking athletics, right?

I hope he’s not going to get mad at me for using that headline, but I’m trying to be fair given what he shared on the radio. If I were going for the entirely sensational headline, I would have just said “Mark Cuban would tank games.” Mind you however, that when Cuban joined Michael Irvin and Mike Fisher on FOX Sports Radio, he said he would tank games in certain circumstances:

Irvin: I can dance with you all day right there, it sounds like you’re saying I’d rather just tank a couple games, but I won’t even go there Mark, let’s move on.

Cuban: I’ll be the first to admit Michael, I would tank a lot of games.

Irvin: You would tank games? Mark wait, you would tank games to get the first pick in the draft?

Cuban: Yes, yes see it depends on where you are.

The depends on where you are has to deal with the recent history of your franchise, Cuban went on to say. For instance, Cuban argued (and I agree), that having a team stuck around 40 wins each year is the worst position a franchise can be in. Stuck on 40 wins means you’re not good enough to go far in the playoffs, and you’re not bad enough to get a great player in the lottery. So Cuban said that if his team were stuck around that area, he would want them to get better in the lottery — essentially by tanking playing younger players. Only problem … look what happened to Boston.

More Cuban and NBA Lottery on LBS:
Cuban Tampering with Michael Finley?
Ed Snider Wants to Change the NBA Draft Lottery System