Most NBA owners probably don’t like that the Golden State Warriors, a 73-win powerhouse, were able to carve out enough cap space to sign Kevin Durant.
Mark Cuban, though, is not most owners. He doesn’t really have a huge issue with Durant heading to Oakland. To the contrary, he thinks it’s good for the NBA, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com:
Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner who has never shied away from going against the grain, is confident that adding a former MVP to a recent championship team that already features two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will drive interest in the league.
“They become the villain,” Cuban told ESPN on Wednesday, a day after Silver indicated that changes in the collective bargaining agreement are needed to prevent similar situations from developing in the future. “Just like when LeBron James went to Miami, I loved that there was a villain. They become the villain. I’m fine with that. Everybody’s going to root for them to lose.”
Same, Mark. Same.
Look, on some level, Mark Cuban probably isn’t happy about it. Plus, he’s not the owner of a borderline contender whose championship hopes were shafted by the formation of this Western Conference giant. If he owned a squad like, say, the Los Angeles Clippers, he would probably be pissed.
Then again, the Clippers, just like the Boston Celtics and a few other really good teams, also had the ability to pitch Durant, an opportunity they wouldn’t have otherwise enjoyed if not for the salary-cap boom. So while this issue most definitely needs to be addressed in the next CBA, in the event of yet another potential financial windfall, neither the Warriors nor the league should be crucified for how this offseason has played out.
It’s like Mark Cuban pointed out, this is the 2010-11 Miami Heat, or the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers, all over again. People will want to see the Warriors fail. They will dissect and over-analyze everything about the them now. Other teams will try to build superteams that combat the Warriors, which creates yet another layer of intrigue.
That’s not bad for the NBA. It may not be great for most teams, but from an entertainment value standpoint, the Warriors actually help the league as a whole.
