Outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is at it again regarding the Olympics. A couple months ago we told you about Cuban’s push to get NBA players banned from representing their country in the Olympics. We pointed out that it wasn’t patriotic to seek a ban of the best players in your own Country from competing just to avoid having his assets, namely Dirk Nowitzki, from risking injury in the Olympics.
Well this time Cuban isn’t pushing for an NBA ban, instead he is pushing to capitalize on their participation. Coming on the heels of the Ray Allen and Dwyane Wade comments that NBA players should get paid for representing their countries in the Olympics, Mark Cuban is joining the fun saying that instead the Owners should be the ones to get paid for letting their players compete in the Olympics.
“It’s the biggest mistake the NBA makes,” he told FoxSports.com. “If you look up stupid in the dictionary, you see a picture of the USA Dream Team playing for free for corporate America so the U.S. Olympic Committee can make millions of dollars. If you come up with something that you own, that you give it to me for free so I can make billions of dollars, I want it.
“And it has nothing to do with patriotism. It’s all about money. You don’t see the Olympic Committee saying, ‘Oh we made so much money. Let’s give it to people.’ “
Sorry Mark, just by saying ‘it has nothing to do with patriotism’, doesn’t make it so. Also, just because a player is under an NBA contract with your organization doesn’t mean you own that person. Are you asking Dirk Nowitzki to give you a cut of his offseason endorsement deals too?
[Source Chicago Tribune]
