Larry Brown Sports

On Friday, Mark Cuban raised the question of whether or not the Los Angeles Lakers could benefit from releasing Kobe Bryant through the amnesty provision next season. From a financial standpoint, it makes sense. The Lakers are looking to sign Dwight Howard to a long-term extension and are about $30 million over the luxury tax. Kobe is set to earn $30.45 million next season, and he isn’t getting any younger. That being said, he’s Kobe Bryant.

“If you look at their payroll, even if Dwight (Howard) comes back, you’ve got to ask the question: Should they amnesty Kobe?” Cuban told Ben and Skin on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM. “You just don’t know, right? It’s the same reason I wouldn’t get rid of Dirk (Nowitzki). I’ll take a hit for a season rather than get rid of Dirk. That’s just it. I’ve made that commitment to him over the years, and he’s returned that commitment. Maybe that’s selfish, but that’s just the way it is.

“So I’m just saying that hypothetically. When I say amnesty Kobe, I don’t think they’d do it, but they’ve got some choices to make. Now, they’re in a big market, but they’re still limited. The Knicks, the same thing. Boston, same thing.”

The conversation had to do with salary cap issues, so Cuban’s idea makes sense when thinking strictly in terms of dollars and cents. Despite that, the Lakers were not pleased with Cuban for making the comments.

“We’re aware of Mark Cuban’s comments and feel they are inappropriate,” Lakers spokesman John Black said in a statement, via ESPNDallas.com. “As to the issue itself, we will not comment publicly on the amnesty issue as it relates to any of our players.”

The Lakers said they will not file a formal complaint, but the league could still fine Cuban for violating its policy of talking about players in that way who are under contracts with other teams. Personally, I don’t see the big deal — especially since Cuban acknowledged he’s in a similar situation with Nowtizki but would never release him to save money against the salary cap.

“I said it hypothetically,” Cuban later added according to the Dallas Morning News. “I didn’t say they  were going to. I just used it as a hypothetical.”

Releasing Kobe would be a PR nightmare. But if the team is as committed to Dwight Howard as they recently said they are, it would make sense on some level. Will it ever happen? Absolutely not. They’d be better off finding a trade partner.

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest is not exactly getting better as the years go on. Despite the efforts of some of their fellow players, superstars rarely ever feel inclined to participate in the event anymore. Since convincing high-profile players to partake clearly isn’t working, Mark Cuban has some other ideas.

“Star power helps,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “But I think you can add some technology to it. You add a height meter, a distance meter, just simple things, where it makes it more entertaining on TV.

“Because the tech(nology) is there to measure it in real time. And then you include that in the score. So more guys are going to try to jump from the free-throw line. More guys are going to try to get up. That will add to the excitement. ‘Who can jump the highest? Who can jump the furthest?’ And it will all be there in real time, so you can’t back away from it.”

I like it. We wrote a few years back that it is crucial for more superstars to start competing in the Dunk Contest for it to be enjoyable  but that clearly isn’t going to happen. There were a few exciting dunks over the weekend in Houston, but there were also too many misses that made the competition feel like it was dragging out. Measuring how high and far participants are jumping would certainly add a new element to the contest.

“Look, you’ve got to remember who’s there and who’s watching it,” Cuban continued. “Kids, kids, kids, kids. Not you guys (media). When you go to the All-Star game, it’s everybody taking their kids. When you go Saturday night, Friday night, it’s everybody taking their kids. They’re not nearly as critical when they go, ‘Ooh. Daddy, can we have some more popcorn? Aah. Can we get a T-shirt? That’s their level of criticism.”

Players seem to be running out of ideas and ways to be creative. Using technology like Cuban is talking about could only help.

Once again, the Cubes comes up with a good business idea.

Mark Cuban likes Chris Webber as a person, but he thinks the former NBA All-Star is “horrible” as an analyst for TNT.

Webber was in Oakland calling the Dallas Mavericks-Golden State Warriors game on Thursday. Apparently Cuban, the Mavs’ owner, didn’t like what he was hearing from C-Webb.

Cuban chimed in on a tweet sent by Haralabos Voulgaris, an expert NBA gambler, who noted that Webber was “blabbing” a lot during the telecast:

. @haralabob @rider221 CWebb = great guy. Horrible analyst. Got nothing to add at all.You can tell he does no homework before the game

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 1, 2013

Cuban called Webber a “great guy” but “horrible analyst” who adds nothing and doesn’t do his homework before games.

We’re not sure exactly what Webber said to irritate Cuban, but we have a few ideas.

Read The Rest of the Story…

The Dallas Mavericks are off to a rough 15-23 start to the season, and at the moment they look like a team that could be destined for the playoff bubble. Two years removed from an NBA championship, Dallas has lost some key players like Jason Kidd and Jason Terry and is dealing with an aging and oft-injured Dirk Nowitzki.

Some feel that the logical thing for Mark Cuban to do would be to start rebuilding, and Dirk would be a valuable trade piece should he decide to go that route. While Cuban acknowledged that there’s close to a “one hundred percent chance” he will make a move before the trade deadline, he said there is no way he’s trading Nowitzki.

“No one’s panicking,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “We’re going to be opportunistic through the trade deadline. We’re not going to trade Dirk. I told Dirk we’re not going to trade Dirk. I told Dirk if I’m going through this [expletive], you’re going through it with me. He actually appreciated it.”

Generally speaking, comments like the ones Cuban made about Dirk would mean nothing. Owners say stuff like that all the time to squash trade rumors and wind up dealing their stars anyway, but I doubt that will be the case in Dallas. Cuban and Nowitzki have always had a genuinely close relationship, and I’d be shocked if Cuban wasn’t open and honest about Dirk’s future with the team. Not to mention, he still thinks his team can contend with him.

“I’m as confident as I can be,” Cuban said. “We didn’t go into this just to be middling. If you look at every team that’s any good now, pick a team. Other than the Spurs, every single one of them had to take a huge step backward.”

With 44 games remaining, there’s no reason to believe the Mavericks can’t turn things around and charge into the postseason. And once the playoffs begin, anything can happen.

Passing a kidney stone is said to be one of the most painful processes a person can experience, including child birth. Don’t believe me? Just ask Cosmo Kramer about it. So when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had a kidney stone this week, he was understandably looking for any possible distraction. That included live-tweeting while attempting to pass the stone.

Cuban first mentioned the stone on Wednesday morning.

Kidney stones are no fun.If this one pops out in one piece I’m either going to get it bronzed or sell it on eBay #pukinglikeaftermyfirstbeer

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) December 18, 2012

Cuban went on to retweet a few music-related items before resuming to tweet about his kidney stone about 12 hours later.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Mark Cuban has made plenty of anti-Lakers comments over the years, but he wasn’t in the mood to do more Laker bashing prior to Saturday’s Mavericks-Lakers game in Dallas. He says the reaction from Lakers fans on Twitter has scared him straight.

“I’ve said enough about the Lakers,” Cuban said on Saturday, per the Dallas Morning News. “Let’s just say, when you say something bad about the Lakers, you get a ton of Twitter threats, so it’s just not worth it.

“There is more Twitter courage in Southern California than probably any other part of the world. I could say ‘Kobe tied his shoe laces wrong’ and I’d probably get death threats on Twitter.”

Instead of providing fresh quotes for the media, Cuban told writers to copy and paste what he said about the Lakers in October. Back then, the Mavericks owner says he hoped the Lakers would suck. He says he still feels that way.

The Lakers got revenge on the Mavs. After losing to them 99-91 in their season opener, they won 115-89 on Saturday.

I understand where Cuban is coming from. There are some fan bases that get so offended by comments that they will respond by making your life miserable with non-stop Twitter comments. Of course, Cuban just probably gave his haters more fuel to continue their threats now that they know it works.

Mark Cuban and Donald Trump are using Twitter to go at it like a couple of little rich kids arguing over whose dad has a sweeter car. The ongoing beef seems to stem from Trump offering to donate $5 million to the charity of Barack Obama’s choice if the President agreed to show the public his college transcripts and US passport records. In response to that, Cuban offered Trump $1 million to shave his head for charity.

As we know from watching this hilarious clip over and over again, Trump doesn’t need to shave his head — he can just take his hair off. In any event, Cuban made the offer and Trump declined.

Read The Rest of the Story…