[size=8]E-mail from Mark Cuban that he posted on the Mavericks blog.[/size]
...Now that we are no longer talking about my Mamma.com, we can get to the follow up to my NBA business at hand. Im not sure which will happen first, that you will read this blog entry, or see a Press Release from the NBA, but they fined me 10k dollars. Why ? Thats where the fun starts.
In my conversation with the NBA’s Rick Buchanan, who really is a good guy in a thankless job, he told me I was being fined because i told the media what i had told Josh Howard. (You can see my last entry for details). I wasnt being fined because of what I said to Josh. Merely because I had told the media what I had told Josh.
In true NBA fashion, it doesnt deal with the issues that necessitated my talking to Josh. The NBA feels that if they fine you, the reason you were upset and spoke out will go away and and everyone will forget that its a problem. Unfortunately, they are right. The NBA is a haven for short attention span theater fans.
Back to my fine….The league felt that given the coverage of the discussion(they were quick to point out how many articles had been written about it ) and the climate in the media following the craziness surrounding the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident, that they needed to send a message. I can understand that. No problem.
What will once again be fun, is to watch how the media covers the fine. They of course will write and report that I am being fined for “putting out a bounty on bruce bowen”, which of course I never did,but works a whole lot better in a story. Or some of the more responsible reporters will write that i was fined for my “comments to Josh Howard in reponse to the bowen - finley altercation”, which of course is incorrect as well. Think anyone will report that I was fined because I commented to the media….me neither
One last note, as is my habit, I will match the fine with a donation to charity. In this case it will be to Sickle Cell Anemia Research in the name of Taylor Delk, Tony’s daughter who has the disease.
