Mark Cuban’s not sorry that he’s not sorry.
Since his Dallas Mavericks won an NBA title in 2011, Cuban has taken a lot of flack for the decisions he’s made or simply allowed to be made.
After Dirk Nowitzki led them to a championship over the Miami Heat, the team was essentially dismantled. Just like that. That same summer, the Mavs bid farewell to Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea. The next year, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry followed suit. And Cuban was complicit.
Not that he had an overwhelming say in all the matters—he wanted Kidd to say—but it was under his watch. Chandler could have been re-signed. The same goes for Terry. But they weren’t. Cuban and the Dallas organization had bigger things planned.
Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard—they were the somethings bigger.
Cuban bet that by creating tons of cap space, he could bring in another star to play next to Dirk. Scrappy basketball was dead, after all. Dallas may have emerged victorious over the Heat in 2011, but you needed a semblance of a super team to have a shot at winning a title these days (see 2012 and 2013).
In some ways, that plan was brilliant. Teams were always positioning themselves to have a shot a signing superior talent. That Cuban had the guts to do so following a championship campaign was bold, yet savvy.
Problem is, his and Dallas’ savvy didn’t pan out. More than two years later, Dirk is still the only genuine superstar in Big D, and the Mavericks aren’t being depicted as a playoff team.
Last summer, Cuban, or rather the Mavs, signed a slew of players to one-year deals after whiffing on Williams. Until Dirk went down, they were considered a fringe playoff team. For a team planning to chase CP3 and Superman in one-year’s time, that was enough.
Only they didn’t make the playoffs. Or land Paul. Or Howard. Or any other legitimate star. They were left to offer multi-year deals to Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert, among others. They couldn’t even land Andrew Bynum or Greg Oden. Now the 35-year-old Nowitzki appears destined to play out the remainder of his career on a mediocre faction, unless he’s willing to torch his ties to Dallas next summer as a free agent.
Given all that, Cuban has to be sorry. Sorry that he hedged all his bets and lost. Sorry that the Mavericks did what they did. Right?
Wrong.
“Would i do it the same way again?” Cuban wrote on his blog, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas. “In a heartbeat. Why? Because in the NBA, like in the non-sports business world you have to take chances in order to be rewarded. You have to be smart and you have to be more than a little lucky.”
Ballsy. Yet again. You may laugh at that, but you also have to respect it.
Part of Cuban has to regret what’s went down since Dallas won a title. It just has to. But much of what he said is true. You have to take risks in the NBA. More importantly, he didn’t blow up anything too special.
Would the 2011 Mavericks have repeated? Absolutely not. Say what you will, but that team wouldn’t have had a similar 2012 or 2013. They were a special group, but likely a one-time wonder.
So as you watch Howard suit up for the Houston Rockets, Paul for the Los Angeles Clippers and Williams for the Brooklyn Nets, and as you watch the Mavericks struggle toward a potential lottery finish, remember that Cuban makes no apologies, nor should he.
Risk taking is a habitual part of the NBA. It’s the reason why the Mavs are in the pickle they are now, but also the reason why Cuban was able to help spend them toward in a title in 2011. Remember that.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
