Mark Cuban has said a lot of ridiculous things lately, whether about Donald Trump or DeAndre Jordan re-signing with the Clippers.
By comparison, the Mavericks owner sounds downright rational about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell upholding his four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in deflategate.
Cuban on Cyber Dust, via The Dallas Morning News:As far as 4 games being upheld, the NBA owner in me is surprised it wasn’t extended. The old saying “the cover up is always worse than the crime” applies here.
Once he destroyed his phone this all went from did he break the rules of the game, to “can he get away with deceiving the commissioner”
We can argue whether 4 games was too much for deflating the ball. You can’t argue whether 4 games is enough for trying to make a fool out of the commissioner of the NFL.
The NFL can’t have players, their agents and Lawyers thinking that if you do wrong and just destroy the evidence it will all be OK
That can undermine the integrity of the league.
If this was the NBA, I truly think the suspension would have been more than 25pct of the season
So while Pats fans I’m sure will disagree. I think the punishment of 4 games for trying to destroy the evidence is actually lite
The coverup was worse than the crime – at least the crime the NFL could prove.
But that doesn’t mean Brady deserved four games for destroying his cell phone. That act just allowed the NFL to turn public sentiment against the Patriots quarterback. Brady, to some degree, should have the right to handle his personal property as he pleases. The NFL doesn’t have subpoena power. But the league does have the right to punish its employees. It’s a messy situation all around.
I’m not nearly as convinced as Cuban that NBA commissioner Adam Silver would react as harshly. Really, the best compliment you could give Silver is that he’d never let it reach this point in the first place.