The Mavericks were blown out at the hands of the Spurs on Friday, and Monta Ellis, the team’s leading scorer, was seen leaving the arena on crutches after suffering an apparent leg injury.
That combination of events had Mark Cuban in a foul mood afterward, so much so that he lit into the game’s officials for the lack of foul calls Ellis receives, and also ripped the NBA for the way the league has responded to his series of complaints.
From Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas:Cuban, who has calmly mentioned in the past that Ellis doesn’t get as many calls as he should, said he was set off after seeing Spurs power forward Tim Duncan smack Ellis in the face without a foul being called.
“He got hit in the face, Duncan got his body lower, hand was down like this in the replay, and then [referee] Monty McCutchen says he was straight up and down,” Cuban said. “Say you missed it, cool. Say you’ll look at it, cool. Say you weren’t sure, cool. Say it wasn’t your call, cool. But when the second defender doesn’t jump, it can’t be up and down. When a drive starts at the top of the key and you go straight down, it’s not lower box, it can’t be up and down unless you jump. That’s crazy, and it happens three times a game for Monta, every game. It’s ridiculous.” ...
“I’m not allowed to say how many and what, but we literally have a play list of all the calls of Monta getting smacked and no call,” Cuban said. “It’s crazy. It’s crazy. It’s always the same: ‘Oh, it’s incidental,’ or ‘It’s not this, it’s not that.’ We tried. We tried to play the game.”
Cuban also took to Twitter to air his grievances.
Cuban has been vocal on this topic in the past, and has been fined more than once by previous commissioner David Stern for his public criticism of officials.
These comments may earn him his first fine from Adam Silver, but aside from that (or the league admitting incorrect calls after the fact), there’s not much else that’s likely to come from Cuban’s latest round of remarks.