NBA Fines Mavericks' Cuban $250,000
By JAIME ARON
DALLAS (AP) - Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA on Tuesday for his outbursts following Game 5 of the NBA finals.
Cuban was cited for ``several acts of misconduct'' committed after Dallas lost 101-100 in overtime to the Heat in Miami on Sunday night.
Furious with several calls, Cuban went onto the floor to vent directly to official Joe DeRosa. He then stared down and screamed toward commissioner David Stern and a group of league officials, from the court, then the stands. He later used profanity during a postgame session with the media.
The fine was announced hours before the Mavericks played host to the Heat in Game 6 of the NBA finals. Miami led the series 3-2.
Cuban said Monday he was bracing for the fine, his second this postseason. It showed in his reaction to the penalty: ``I'm fine with it,'' he wrote in an e-mail. ``Get the humor there. Fine with it.''
The NBA said it would have no further comment on the matter.
Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki was so frustrated with the way Dallas lost Game 5 that he kicked the ball into the stands, knocked over a stationary bicycle and kicked at something else on his way to the locker room. On Monday, he was fined $5,000 for booting the ball.
``(Cuban) is a very emotional guy, too,'' Nowitzki said. ``He was upset, as we all were, about the loss, obviously the whole last sequence that went down.''
Cuban has been fined at least $1,455,000 and suspended from three games since buying the team in January 2000. The exact total of his punishment tab isn't known because the league doesn't always publicize action against team owners. Cuban says he matches every dollar with a charitable donation.
This also marks the 10th known time that Cuban has been penalized. The biggest fine was $500,000 - the most ever against one person - in January 2002 for comments that included saying he wouldn't hire the league's head of officiating to manage a Dairy Queen.
Since then, the only other acknowledged fine came last month, when he was assessed $200,000 - $100,000 for going onto the court during a playoff game in San Antonio and another $100,000 for an entry on his blog criticizing the way the league selects officials for the playoffs.
Cuban also has been riled up several times since his last fine.
When Jason Terry was suspended from Game 6 of the Spurs series for punching Michael Finley, Cuban said he ``didn't understand it and not quite so politely, I told the league so.''
In the conference finals, he went into the stands to help the wife of coach Avery Johnson when she was in an argument. Third-string center D.J. Mbenga went, too, and he was suspended for six games. When announcing that, the league said Cuban was off the hook because ``his actions did not violate NBA rules and were not otherwise inappropriate.''
Last Friday, after Jerry Stackhouse was suspended for a hard foul on Shaquille O'Neal in Game 4, Cuban said, ``It makes no sense at all,'' adding that there were several hard hits against Dallas ``all without response from the league.'' He then wore a Stackhouse jersey to Game 5.
Cuban also mocked his persona with a blog entry apparently aimed at drawing more viewers to his appearance on David Letterman's late-night show, writing, ``I already have picked out my next charity to donate to.''
Also Tuesday, Cuban posted a blog entry in response to a column in the Miami Herald that quoted him as saying, ``Your league is rigged'' during his tirade after Game 5.
``That's a complete insult to the players on the court and the incredible amount of effort they put into preparing for and playing the games,'' he wrote. ``The NBA couldn't rig the games if it wanted to. And it doesn't want to. It's that simple.''
He wrote that he hates the idea of any wrongdoing, calling each theory ``a business hole I have to work harder to dig us out of.''
His solution: Better explanations by the league of what happened and why.
``I think it would help the perception of our game,'' he wrote. ``I think it would help fans better understand not only the rules of the NBA, but also the nuances, strategies and challenges of the game.''
06/20/06 16:30 © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
so that's why I said this.. although you are right.. I just checked NBA.com last two is at Mav.. maybe this guy was wrong in stating the nbrs of mav game. **SHRUG**
