Mark Cuban and the NBA have always had a love-hate relationship with one another, and now the pendulum may be swinging back in favor of the latter.
In an interview this week with veteran NBA writer Marc Stein, the longtime Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban called out the league for their “petty” move. Cuban revealed that the NBA no longer allows him to sit behind the Dallas bench during road games.
“The NBA got really, really, really petty and said that I can’t sit behind the bench anymore,” Cuban said.
The 66-year-old Cuban added that he no longer attends many Mavericks road games as a result and is set to miss the team’s entire three-game road trip leading into Thanksgiving week. You can read his full interview with Stein here.
Cuban bought the Mavs in 2000 and has long been known as one of the most hands-on, ominpresent owners in the league. His many antics while sitting courtside over the years are a story as old as time itself.
But Cuban is no longer the principal owner of the Mavericks as he decided late last year to sell his majority stake to the Adelson family (led by Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont, who now serves as main governor of the team). Cuban later explained that he had a couple of noteworthy reasons for doing so.
Though Cuban is still minority owner of the Mavericks and retains control over the day-to-day basketball operations as part of a very interesting setup, it seems the NBA has since placed some restrictions on Cuban’s presence at Dallas’ road games. He clearly isn’t pleased about it either, and it definitely is not the first time that Cuban has clashed with the league.
