Outrageous! Unbelievable! Preposterous! Did I really just hear that or are my ears playing tricks on me? "Mark Cuban is someone who makes even Jerry Jones look classy." Hearing that comment made me tightly hold the wheel with both hands in hopes of an accident. I was shocked and offended. What kind of idiots do we have on the radio in this town? How quickly we forget!
Am I the only one who remembers when the Mavericks sucked? Let's be honest people, it wasn't that long ago. I grew up watching bad basketball and baseball while the only saving grace was Jerry Jones and his World Champion Cowboys. And God help us without Jerry and his rebellious Pepsi and Nike contracts, Dallas may have floated off the map. I remember when the NFL was furious with Jones and he was called a rebel and a pirate for marketing the Cowboys like he did and making way more off his product and investment than other owners dreamed of. He was a very business savvy individual who knew what the hell he was doing and people hated him for that. But us in Dallas loved him, at least the true fans. To have an owner care that much and pour his heart and soul into a team, our team, was heart-warming. It was a team you could really get behind.
And now we have maybe an even greater pioneer in the game of basketball, Mark Cuban. An owner so dedicated to his team that he builds them a castle and only asks on the hunt for the top treasure in the NBA that they bring home the booty (not get theirs handed to them by Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, but that's for another day).
During and even after the NBA Finals it has seemed like the ripping of Mark Cuban has greatly increased (David Stern, tell your wiccan to back off). It's funny though, I didn't remember Cuban blowing a 13 point lead in the final minutes of game 3. I also didn't remember him missing huge free-throws (they call them that because they are FREE; Shaq, are you listening?), getting suspended, or not getting important stops on defense. Maybe I wasn't watching close enough but my guess is that is was the athletes on the court who blew the series (officiating also, well, I do think we share a jail cell with the Seahawks and a guy named Bubba but that's not the point here).
So why is an amazing owner like Cuban getting all the heat (no pun intended). Ask any pro athlete and they will tell you they would kill (take it easy, O.J.) for an owner like Mark. I believe he is the best thing to ever happen to this town and when all is said and done will have built a dynasty here in Dallas. Compare him with other owners in this town, or anywhere, and you will quickly see that while Dallas may have already been on the map (Thank You, Jerry), Cuban is putting it to all CAPS.
The best example is that dead-beat, Tom Hicks. He owns the Rangers and the Stars yet he pockets his profits and is content with them being mediocre. While Hicks did make two big moves in his tenure in Dallas (Brett Hull and A-ROD, the former of which did help the Stars win a Stanley Cup), his greed as of the past few years makes people dread going to the ballpark and the arena. The Rangers payroll is actually within a few million of the Twins and Nationals, both teams that were almost disposed of a few years ago because of financial implications. So Tom, if you are reading this for the love of God please put the Stars back on the market. And Mark, do the right thing and buy them. Think of this as monopoly and you have Boardwalk and you just need Park Place to put a strangle hold on you opponents. The Mav's already share the arena with the Stars, it makes perfect sense. And as for Hick's Rangers, Mark, do you like baseball?
At this point, with the World Cup in full swing (except for those dominant Americans), it would seem appropriate to mention FC Dallas and their owner in this article. So there, I just did. I realize that I didn't really say anything about them but this article is only comparing real sports (yes - nascar, golf, bowling, horse-racing, tennis, beer-pong, none of you qualify either; although beer-pong would be the closest).
So thank you Jerry for putting Dallas on the map and that you Mark for helping keep it there (or maybe JFK helped out a little; speaking of, are you guys swinging by Dallas to pick up a book anytime soon? When is the next Kennedy family ski-trip or vacation to Martha's Vineyard? Ted, you bring the booze, Robert, you the pain-killers, and I will supply the falsified police reports to cover you once again). And thank you Lion, Scarecrow and Tin-man. You helped me believe in myself enough to write this article. I couldn't have done it without you!
"We're off to see the Wizard,"
"The Bear"
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