Baseball blogs have been alight with fans screaming at former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent on comments he made on ESPN Radio’s The Thundering Herd on Wednesday. Just a few days after his Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship, Vincent spurned the idea that Cuban could become and MLB owner:
“I think it’s more important for owners to be gentlemen, play by the rules, respect the authorities, do what’s good for the sport, than it is to manage a franchise into total success… The subtleties make the difference. George Steinbrenner was a real problem in baseball, and I think Mark Cuban is a real problem in basketball.”
Whether Cuban gains entrance into the fraternity of baseball is for Bud Selig and the MLB owners to decide. Vincent’s most questionable assessment, however, is his belief that Cuban is bad for basketball. While I try not to scoff at those who have years of sports business experience, I think I was taken aback by this just as many NBA fans were. With the dried champagne still sticky and waiting to be cleaned off the Larry O’Brien Trophy, how is it possible that anyone could believe that this is the case regarding Cuban’s relationship with the league, David Stern and the all-important fans?
Vincent’s principle issue is his failure to acknowledge the difference in marketing and demographic interaction that basketball has taken in comparison to other sports, baseball in particular. It’s no secret that Stern and the NBA have fully embraced the new media sector of their business, fully profiting from facial and first-name recognition of their players and open access to NBA media via You Tube, Twitter and Facebook (not to mention countless others).
It’s not as if the Association has let their players, coaches and owners run wild. Stern has ratcheted down on those items that shed a poor light on the league including a dress code, fighting and criticism of officials. Many believe that Stern’s cracking down has gone too far, like in the case of this year’s playoffs when the league fined Blazer coach Nate McMillan $35,000 for saying, “Guys really didn’t know how to play with the fouls that we’re being called.”
Vincent completely dismisses Cuban’s contribution to the NBA as a league; as an owner and as a generator of publicity. Ironically, Cuban’s image has perpetually been in-line with the NBA’s open-door policy in marketing even as they continue to fine him ($1.7 million over the last 11 years). When Cuban’s Broadcast.com was bought by Yahoo! during the dotcom boom, one of the first things the new billionaire did with his money was buy a sports team from the city he’d lived for the last 18 years. Cuban’s life is an average-joe’s dream, and his flamboyant, open nature lets the rest of us live vicariously through him. If he was locked away like Peter Holt or James Dolan it just wouldn’t be as much fun.
Most importantly, Cuban has spent money with little regard for the salary cap and the luxury cap after that. Instead, Cuban has been focused on winning and it shows. Since Cuban bought the team in 2000 the Mavericks have gone from a sub-.450 franchise to winning more than 65% of their games. Now, with a trophy and a banner ready to adorn the American Airlines Center, whether the method is madness or not, Mark Cuban is a champion. Like other impassioned NBA owners, his thirst for the game is the drive behind the parity we’ve seen in the league over the last five years, infinitely concentrating the quality of the primary product — the games.
Baseball is part of the old guard of sports. In a world with an increasingly higher demand on players, athletes, ownership and management, they fail to make any kind of admissions or changes to their game. Fifty-seven years ago the NBA adopted a shot clock to increase the speed of the game. Meanwhile, the MLB has yet to adopt a pitch timer or even full use of replay. To that end, basketball has taken a spot just below the NFL in popularity in the country. And for better or for worse, the MLB drags far behind them.
Fay Vincent and his old-school compatriots are the individuals responsible for driving baseball back into the dark cave it crawled out of in 1995. The baseball culture may very well not be ready for a Mark Cuban in their game. But to criticize basketball in a manner in which he clearly does not understand and has no business waging an opinion on is ignorant and short-sighted of Vincent. He can take his stodgy, ill-marketed old game. I’ll take Mark Cuban and mine.
The newest edition to The Hoop Doctors writing staff, Dane Carbaugh is the editor and lead writer of the popular new basketball blog Hardcourt Hoops. Dane is an accomplished author and blogger of both American politics and NBA basketball.
