Mark Cuban Made The Mavericks Relevant. But Is His Legacy Rotten? | Lee Escobedo

The twelvemonth 2000 cracked unfastened for illustration a glow stick, flooding Dallas pinch caller money – and a caller Mavericks owner, who had made his money trading his streaming tract conscionable earlier nan dot-com crash. Like nan 1990s Mavs, Mark Cuban wasn’t polished – and he judge arsenic hellhole wasn’t subtle. He was brash and argumentative, fought pinch refs, and clapped excessively difficult whenever Dirk Nowitzki buried a three. The net age, successful nan shape of Cuban, collapsed courtside erstwhile he bought nan squad for $285m. Gone was nan era of distant owners watching occasional games from nan executive boxes: nan instrumentality was successful power of nan squad now. Cuban had hacked reality.

Cuban’s thesis was simple: ne'er play by their rules. The Mavs were his start-up. He improved nutrition, upgraded hotels for roadworthy games, bought a squad plane, filled lockers pinch PlayStations, and fought nan NBA’s lawyers pinch nan defiance of a rapper clapping disconnected hundos successful a portion club. This went against nan NBA’s aged boys’ club. For each his dot-com cache, Cuban was punk successful practice.

His first bid of business? Signing 38-year-old Dennis Rodman, of course. As a trickster, Cuban understood spectacle. Those early years were astir making nan Mavs culturally relevant. The squad made nan playoffs successful their first afloat twelvemonth nether Cuban. He was what has go regular for sports owners successful nan caller millennium: a tech billionaire.

A 4th period later, nan glow has dimmed. Cuban sold his mostly ownership liking for $3.5bn to a fig little a illusionist than a ruthless businesswoman: Miriam Adelson. Since then, arsenic a number owner, he has small to do pinch nan day-to-day moving of nan team, and has been sidelined by nan wide head he erstwhile hired, Nico Harrison.

Without nan Mavericks to inhabit him, Cuban has drifted connected to a media tour. He’s defended everything from nan GM who now calls nan shots he erstwhile made, Harrison, to Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer’s “no-show” occupation controversy. The 1 point he doesn’t look to want to talk astir is the Luka Dončić trade, a move that still haunts overmuch of nan Mavericks fanbase. Cuban seems unmoored, clinging to nan NBA spotlight for illustration a man acrophobic nan lights will dim. As Mavs owner, relevance was automatic – his rima and moxie did nan work. At nan aforesaid time, his erstwhile squad is disconnected to a horrendous commencement nether nan dim-witted supervision of caller ownership and his erstwhile wide manager. The Mavericks are adjacent nan bottommost of nan NBA standings, and calls to “Fire Nico” person ramped backmost up. Many fans clasp Cuban responsible for hand-picking Harrison and trading nan squad to nan bad guys.

Cuban turned a $285m bet connected nan Mavericks into $3.5bn. But really will that windfall beryllium publication successful nan history books? Will it beryllium arsenic nan people of a visionary, aliases conscionable different luck sucked from American sports? To judge Cuban’s ownership tenure, sometimes nan simplest paradigms are nan astir revealing.

The good

The clip that Cuban hopes will specify him, that will unrecorded arsenic agelong arsenic there’s a tile connected nan American Airlines Center, is 2011. Dirk’s run, nan 1 that rocked Miami’s “Heatles” dynasty earlier it moreover began. A title, finally. That banner is impervious that his mania could beryllium distilled into a championship.

But championships don’t hap successful a vacuum. Cuban could person fired wide head Donnie Nelson aft nan Mavs mislaid successful nan 2006 NBA finals. But he knew that Nelson’s oculus for overseas talent had already brought successful Nowitzki – and 1 time it would bring successful Dončić too. Nelson’s imagination group up an world pipeline others envied and ripped off. Cuban was smart pinch players arsenic good arsenic executives though, and looked retired for them erstwhile they needed it nan most. Delonte West was a Mav for conscionable 1 season, but Cuban made aggregate overtures to thief him footwear narcotics and get backmost connected his feet. Sadly, Cuban couldn’t prevention West. Nor could West prevention himself.

At nan zenith of Cuban’s Mavericks reign, location was a uncommon consciousness of balance. He hired fantabulous coaches: Don Nelson brought a lust for life, Avery Johnson brought defense, and Dirk’s station game. Rick Carlisle brought tactical nous that fueled nan team’s title run. Jason Kidd harnessed nan Dončić-inspired finals tally successful 2024. Carlisle, successful particular, was everything Cuban wasn’t – quiet and methodical. Together, they engendered nan situation Dirk needed to go title myth.

More than immoderate roster move, though, Cuban gave Dallas hoops relevance. Starting successful 2000-01, they reached nan playoffs successful 15 retired of 16 seasons. Their slogan, MFFL, wasn’t firm branding but an personality built successful South Dallas and Oak Cliff. The 1990s Mavs were godawful. That Cuban yanked them retired of nan gutter and turned them into title contenders is to his immense credit.

Mark Cuban successful 2000, his first twelvemonth arsenic proprietor of nan Mavericks. He often came crossed arsenic much of a instrumentality than an owner. Photograph: Huy Nguyen/Associated Press

The bad

But Cuban’s greatness besides led to his ain undoing. The aforesaid gambler’s small heart that made him a billionaire had him looking erstwhile aliases doubly for illustration a slapped ass. Letting Steve Nash locomotion successful 2004 was nan first awesome sin. Cuban didn’t want to salary an aging constituent defender pinch a bad back. Phoenix did, and Nash turned into a two-time MVP who reinvented hoops alongside Mike D’Antoni astatine nan Suns. Dallas sewage thing backmost but regret.

It happened again pinch Jalen Brunson successful 2022. A homegrown guard, Dončić’s earthy backcourt partner, was lowballed and fto go. The Knicks pounced, and Brunson turned into a star Dallas desperately needed. Different decade, aforesaid correction by Cuban.

Hiring Harrison, a Nike executive, arsenic wide head successful 2021 sounded extremist successful property releases but he brought nary existent beforehand agency chops. Harrison made immoderate smart plays by signing Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively, but besides pushed Cuban retired arsenic soon arsenic he sold his mostly ownership stake. The title drought successful nan Dončić era has Harrison’s fingerprints each complete it. Shipping disconnected nan Slovenian superstar made Harrison persona non grata successful Dallas – nan eventual sellout move, a mediate digit to nan city and nan fans.

Then location were Cuban’s free-agency calamities. Tyson Chandler, protect bosom of nan 2011 team, walked retired nan doorway because Cuban wanted headdress flexibility. Michael Finley, Cuban’s first Mavericks captain, was waived via amnesty and won a ringing pinch San Antonio. Kristaps Porziņģis was expected to beryllium Dončić’s moving mate; instead, he was a net dump, injuries included, costing Dallas 2 first-round picks. And nan crown jewel of misfires: leaving Nowitzki to walk his twilight surrounded by entropy and one-year rentals, each because Cuban chased free-agents who ne'er signed.

The ugly

Cuban had a penchant for wasting draught picks connected foreign-born busts, coupled pinch a deficiency of Black players. There’s nary proposal that was owed to prejudice connected Cuban’s part, but it was often an overseas look successful a convention wherever much than two-thirds of players are Black.

Cuban’s past enactment was to waste his mostly liking to Adelson, nan heir to casino billions and a crisp governmental operator. The quality is glaring: Cuban was a diehard instrumentality who lived and died pinch each triumph and loss, who cared arsenic overmuch astir nan Mavs arsenic nan group successful nan inexpensive seats. Adelson, by contrast, appears to worth governmental power complete basketball. The Mavs are conscionable different portion of an empire that includes nan Las Vegas Sands casino business, nan Adelson Family Foundation kindness and a adjacent narration pinch Donald Trump. In nan Mavs’ case, some see Adelson’s finance successful nan squad arsenic as a stepping chromatic towards legalizing gambling successful Texas. Of each nan group Cuban could person sold nan squad to, why did he person to rate retired to personification who galore fans spot arsenic a real-life supervillain?

Then there’s nan decay that festered during Cuban’s clip arsenic mostly owner. In 2018, a Sports Illustrated report detonated nan illusion of Cuban arsenic nan benevolent disruptor. The Mavericks’ beforehand agency was allegedly a morass of harassment and misconduct. Cuban denied he knew of immoderate misconduct but admitted he bore immoderate responsibility. “I’m embarrassed, to beryllium honorable pinch you, that it happened nether my ownership, and it needs to beryllium fixed. Period. End of story,” he said astatine nan time.

There were different problems. Donnie Nelson sued nan team, accusing Cuban of retaliation aft he reported allegations of intersexual misconduct by a Mavericks executive. Bob Voulgaris, nan gambler Cuban dragged successful disconnected his Twitter feed, shape-shifted into a protector GM – angering Dončić and curdling nan squad from nan inside. While a Mav, Chandler Parsons, played recruiter successful ways that blurred nan statement betwixt subordinate and executive, pushing Cuban toward flopped contracts. But thing outweighs trading nan squad to Adelson. In nan end, Cuban’s hoops rebellion ended pinch a handshake woody pinch nan constitution people he erstwhile mocked and swore to subvert.