Full-Court Press

Cuban, Bissinger Twitter feud ends with meeting?

The Twitter flame war between Mavs owner Mark Cuban and Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger may be over, which is kind of a bummer considering the entertainment value.

Bissinger reported on his Twitter feed that the two met before Tuesday night's Mavericks-76ers game in Philadelphia, where Bissinger lives. 

"Mark Cuban and I met. His objection to column was in questioning the success of the NBA. Cordial, friendly. No fireworks. About 15 minutes," Bissinger posted around 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The spat began after Bissinger wrote a column forTina Brown's "The Daily Beast" that took on the issue of NBA attendance and race. Cuban apparently wasn't happy.

At one point, the Mavs' owner called Bissinger a coward, which really set the author off.

"Said to Cuban I was not a coward as he called me. He said he called me coward bec. it would set me off. We must have met in another life," Bissinger posted after last night's meeting.

He went on to say: "Cuban and I did not discuss issues of race in NBA. He questioned attendance being down in past several years. Is smart. Knows how to market."

No word yet from Cuban.

-- Kathy Vetter, editor

Cuban talks again

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban talked again about the comments he made after the Mavs' disappointing loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Basically, he said, he just thought the Mavs needed a kick in the butt:
    "Sometimes pressure coming from multiple places has a different impact than just coming from someone they see every day, so we'll see what happens. It's all just talk."
    "Our guys aren’t stupid. They know what’s at stake. Now it’s just a question of where their priorities are and what they’re willing to do. It starts at the top with me and Rick (Carlisle) and Dirk (Nowitzki). I’ve got to try to help define the culture or monitor the culture, Rick’s got to implement it and the guys have to execute it."
    "You can't scream "wolf" every day and expect people to respond, so hopefully they will respond. Hopefully, they'll take it on themselves. There's nothing else we can do. I mean, look, I've been doing this nine years now, going on 10 years. It's not like we haven't been through these spurts before. We’ve been in this situation. We've been in this situation in the playoffs a couple of times. It's just the nature of the beast. Sometimes you need a kick in the pants."

Cuban was asked if the team's leaders need to set a better example:
    "As far as energy on the court, absolutely. Every team has to have someone, and we haven’t had that somebody yet. Josh (Howard) or Dirk or Jason Kidd, they have to take that role."

Cuban was also very happy with what Howard's done this season, despite struggling with a bad ankle:
    "He’s been a warrior. You know, the guy, you text him or call him up at home and say, 'What are you doing?' 'I'm icing.' In the morning, 'What are you doing?' 'I'm icing.' 'What you got going on today, Josh?' 'I'm icing.' The guy hasn’t gotten nearly the credit for playing through the pain that he has … I know coach has said it, I’ve said it, I don’t know anybody else in the league that gets so little respect from the officials as Josh. That’s not to say that Josh has played perfectly every game. He hasn’t. But in terms of not taking games off that he could have, Josh has fought back from his last injury and played in a lot of pain over a long period of time."

-- Tracey Myers

Spurs here tomorrow; how do Mavs respond?

I watched last night's game from the home front and was stunned at the Mavericks' response (or lack thereof) against the Thunder. Just one night before, following their victory over the Toronto Raptors, several Mavs were asked about the Thunder, about how tough they played the Mavs here. Every Mavs player said they knew they had to be ready, knew that it was going to be trickier in Oklahoma City's building.

And yet, that's what the Mavs did up there last night. Owner Mark Cuban was upset at the performance. So was coach Rick Carlisle. Understandable. The Mavs had an opportunity to do a number on the Thunder, especially with Kevin Durant and Jeff Green out. Instead, well, we all saw it.

So now the Mavericks play the Spurs tomorrow night; yeah, the same Spurs who, missing Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan last week still beat up on the Mavs. Duncan is back, Ginobili is still out. This is a night when the Mavs need to come out strong and focused. They need this one bad.

So... considering all that's happened in the last 24 hours, how do the Mavs respond tomorrow night?

-- Tracey Myers

Mark Cuban's pregame chat

Mark Cuban talked about the trade deadline, last year's and this year's, prior to tonight's game against the Nets.
    One subject was the Kings-Bulls trade, which sent Sacramento's Brad Miller and John Salmons to Chicago. Said Cuban, "Sacramento was looking to trade two, we just wanted one." Salmons name had been bandied about concerning the Mavericks.

    Also, plenty of chat about the Kidd-Harris trade. To those who think the trade was ill-advised, Cuban said: "Watch your first basketball game. If you don’t see the impact Jason Kidd has had, that’s unique and that very few players have, you’re not watching the games."
    As far as if there's any possibilities of movement in the final hours: "Our approach has stayed the same. We try to be the guys who were willing to pull the trigger, as opposed to hemming and hawing, but the deals weren’t there. Everyone knows what they want to do at this point. It’s more a question of, does someone give up or does someone get extra excited? We’ll see."

-- Tracey Myers

A fan's plea...

I love stuff like this...a Mavs fan writes an "open letter" to owner Mark Cuban, urging him to trade for Jason Kidd.

Not sure why this author just doesn't send his correspondence directly to Cuban. The owner's inbox is always open and he might even read it, at least part of it, it is kind of lengthy.

Any way, for those not wanting to give up on a J-Kidd trade, you might enjoy this.

-- Jeff Caplan

Protest denied

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's protest of Indiana's 111-107 victory over the Mavericks last Friday was denied by the NBA today. With 9:59 left in the second quarter of the game, a two-point field goal by the Pacers Troy Murphy was mistakenly recorded as a three-pointer by the official scorer. The NBA ruled that the mistake was made by the scorer and that no referee had signaled a three-point shot. The error was not discovered until after the game.

At the time, the Pacers had a 41-25 lead. The league released pointed out that the Mavericks still had 34 minutes to overcome the one-point error so it did not have an impact on the outcome of the game.

-- Jan Hubbard

Cuban a Bleacher Bum? Duh.

So Mark Cuban went on Chicago radio on Monday to let the free world -- or at least The Windy City -- know that, hell yeah, he wants to buy the Cubbies, and, hell no, he won't be sitting in some box seat.

-- Jeff

Cubs close to hitting market

Get out your checkbook...or can you buy a baseball team with a debit card?

The Tribune Co., is close to working out a deal and that means the Cubs are very close to hitting the market, according to this report out of NY.

Mark Cuban is just one of a significant number of wealthy businessmen interested in buying the Cubs.

Cuban is the hot name for obvious reasons among Cubs fans, but how crazy would it be if the Cubs win it all this season? It is a possibility, really.

-- Jeff

Cubs fans should forget Cuban

That's the opinion of Barry Rozner today in the Daily Herald, yes, of suburban Chicago.

Major League Baseball prefers local ownership money, which goes back to my original point even way back a couple of years ago when this Cuban-Cubs stuff started -- Cuban needs to buy his hometown Pirates when that once-proud franchise finally hits the market.

He can save the Pirates and all will be right with the world.

My family's tree goes back to Western Pennsylvania so there's no forgetting the "We are Family" Pirates of 1979 -- the flat-top hats, the myriad uniform mix-n-match of black, gold, white and white pin-strip shirts and pants (man, those were the days), Willie Stargell, The Cobra Dave Parker, Bill Madlock, Omar Moreno, Phil Gardner, Bert Blyleven, Jim Bibby, The Candy Man John Candelaria, the sidewinder Kent Tekulve, and, of course, everyone's favorite manager Chuck Tanner.

Forget the Cubbies, Cuban, and prepare to save the Pirates.

-- Jeff

Diff'rent Cuban opinion

Yes, we know, give the Cubs fans the vote and Mark Cuban will run the franchise from now until eternity, surely breaking the hex and bringing World Series championships to Wrigley before you can say broadcast.com.

Well, here's a different take. Of course, Bob Smizik isn't a fan, he's a columnist in Pittsburgh. Perhaps Smizik just wants Cuban to buy the Pirates instead. Here's his quick hitter:

"The notion that Mark Cuban would be a great owner for the Chicago Cubs is about 10 miles off the mark. The last thing Major League Baseball needs is an owner in a major market lavishing extravagant salaries on free agents, which Cuban would surely do. As for Cuban's exceptional marketing acumen, the Cubs don't need it. They're playing to 97 percent capacity at Wrigley Field."

The Pirates aren't.

-- Jeff