Cuban unleashed thunder after Mavs' last trip to OKC
While Cuban is known to go off on an occasional rant, the team is rarely the target. He usually goes to great lengths to defend his players publicly.
The most notable exception came after the Dallas Mavericks' last trip to Oklahoma City. Cuban hit the keyboard with a fury the morning after a 96-87 loss in which the Mavs trailed by as many as 23 points despite Kevin Durant and Jeff Green sitting out for the Thunder.
Cuban's classic e-mail to beat writers:
It's only one game, which I keep reminding myself. But let's just say I wasn't happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort.Dirk Nowitzki, in particular, wasn't too pleased with the owner's rip job. The franchise player said the Mavs didn't need such threats from Cuban to know they had to play much better.
The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks. If each player can't take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don't see them being here next season.
The ball won't always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it's not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won't be back. I don't care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.
This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that's only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it's important.
Well, Cuban's harsh comments certainly didn't hurt. The Mavs responded by finishing the season with a 15-7 run, moving up a couple of spots from the West's eighth seed to make the playoff series win over the San Antonio Spurs possible.
And, of course, Cuban opted not to break up the team's core this summer.
Tim MacMahon
ESPNDallas.com- Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009
- Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks
- Worked at Dallas Morning News for six years
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Tim MacMahon joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. Tim covers the Cowboys and Mavericks. He has covered the local sports scene from high schools to colleges to pros during his six-year tenure at The Dallas Morning News. MacMahon is a graduate of UNT.
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TEAM LEADERS
| POINTS | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Dirk Nowitzki
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| OTHER LEADERS | ||||||||||||
| Rebounds | S. Marion | 7.4 | ||||||||||
| Assists | J. Kidd | 5.5 | ||||||||||
| Steals | J. Kidd | 1.7 | ||||||||||
| Blocks | B. Wright | 1.3 | ||||||||||
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