For Heaven's Sake, Don't Make Me Defend Mark Cuban

For once, Do NOT fine him

So the lead story on the World Wide Lemur this fine Saturday morning (what can I tell you, I just finished cleaning up my space after poker, and I'm not ready to sleep just yet) is how INAPPROPRIATE! the Lakers are finding Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban's public speculation over how they should amnesty Kobe Bryant next year, rather than fork over $30+ million from their $100 million and heavily luxury taxed roster.

Cubes, of course, was saying all of this stuff for the only reason that Cubes says anything: to try to convince the listening public of how special, smart and wonderful he is, because this is a lifelong case that Cubes just can't get away from. (Did you know that the Mavericks are a business unlike any other, and Cubes is a genius for cashing out before the dot-com boom ended, and that Google and YouTube is doomed, Doomed, DOOMED I TELL YOU? Well, by all means, spend more time listening to Cuban. Either that, or stick knitting needles in your ears. Much the same sensation. But I digress.)

Anyway, I'm not going to get into whether or not the Lakers should use the owners' hard-won save us from ourselves contract out from the latest bloodletting of the fans and players union. I can see both sides of it, which is more or less summed up as (a) No defense-free, turnover-prone, low percentage rapidly aging perpetual hard-ass 2-guard could be worth that much cheese in the last year of his contract, and (b) for God's sake, he's the best player in the history of a ridiculously good franchise, and seeing him end his career in anyone else's colors may be the last straw in the locale's exodus to the Clippers. Again, not going to weigh in on that.

Rather, this.

The NBA is said to be considering whether or not to fine Cuban for offering this opinion.

No, seriously.

Now, I'm really not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over the idea of Cuban ponying up some Don't Do It Again hush money. He spends well over six figures a year for his need to scream obscenities at the refs, during and after games. Another stingy little check isn't going to bother him every much.

But still... you can get fined, as an owner, just for daring to answer a question or venturing an opinion about some other team?

That's wrong on a lot of levels.

Not the least of which is that it's going to make me actually feel sorry for Cubes when it happens, and no one in America should ever have to feel sorry for Cubes...