The National Basketball Association has fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $25,000 on March 29, 2009. Cuban was handed the fine on Sunday after publicly criticizing the officials after a 103-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Cuban became enraged when Denver's J.R. Smith came off the bench to taunt Dallas's Antoine Wright after he missed a shot near the Denver bench.
Cuban using Twitter, the online social network, was quick to point out that you "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does." On Sunday, after learning of his latest fine Cuban once again used Twitter to point out that he "just found out got fined25k by nba.) nice".
The flamboyant Mavericks owner has been fined well over a dozen times by the NBA since taking over majority ownership of the club, with a running total nearing $2 million US. All of this seems a little excessive as most of these fines could have been averted if Cuban could only learn to keep his big mouth shut, but then again where would the outside entertainment value lie within this sport?
In a meeting of the two teams back in January, Cuban was also fined $25,000 after becoming upset when Smith threw an elbow in the direction of Wright's head but did not connect (so there is some history here between the two players and with Cuban himself). Cuban offered to match the fine and donate the money to whatever charity Smith chose, suggesting he would donated the money to a fund for Steve Moore, a former NHL player who sustained a career threatening neck injury.
Cuban has a history of donating time and money to charities, even working at a Dairy Queen after making a comment about the NBA's manager of referees, Ed T. Rush saying that he "couldn't manage a Dairy Queen." After Dairy Queen management took offense to the comments made by Cuban, he offered to work at the Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas for a day, serving ice cream to a number of fans who lined the streets to get a blizzard made by the Mavericks owner back in 2002.
Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur, is also the Chairman of HDNet, and co-owner of 2929 Entertainment. The Mavericks owner has made his money through a number of other online business ventures over the years, and had bought a majority stake in the team for $285 million on January 15, 2000. Cuban's ownership of the club has often been described as the ultimate fan fantasy come true as the Mavericks owner continued his trail-blazing antics after purchasing the team, as he refuses to sit in a press box to view the games but rather prefers sitting in the crowd along side fans, often donning a member of the Mavericks team jersey and cheering loudly during games.
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