Mark Cuban and Stan Van Gundy weigh in on Tim Donaghy
This has to go down as one of the banner 24 to 48 hour periods for sports talk radio in the city of Miami...
The hot summer months usually reduce most sports talk radio to mind numbing theme shows like "give us your favorite sports movie." But they're resisting those temptations, perhaps temporarily, in south Florida. This week, the Dan Le Batard show brought back America's Radio Sweetheart, Tim Donaghy, to do his "trash the league, sell some books" routine. The latest comment to pique the show's interest was this insinuation about the 2006 NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat:
"No doubt about it in my mind it's the league not liking Mark Cuban and it's a situation where Dallas was up in the series 2 game to none and it's the blueprint for the book where they put the referees in the room and they start showing them every play in the world to where they think that Wade should've got free throws and didn't. And the next thing you know, he's at the foul line for the next four games and he's put at a clear advantage. And Miami comes back and wins the series."
On Wednesday, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went on the show, listened to the comments, and gave this reaction:
"You really wanted to ruin my day. There's nothing to say...
"All you got to do is look at the video and it says it all. I've already paid my dues on that one."
He then becomes more cryptic with his comments to likely avoid another hefty fine from the NBA commissioner's office:
"I knew what was coming and it came."
"In defense of the league, I don't think the league itself directs any official to do any particular thing. We'll just leave it at that."
And it, indeed, was just left at that. Although it leaves one to assume that he believes certain officials, and not the league as a whole, are out to "get" his team on their own.
You'll remember at the time of that Finals matchup, Stan Van Gundy was watching from afar after deciding at mid-season that he had an urge to leave his job as head coach of the Heat to spend more time with his family. An hour after Cuban weighed in, Van Gundy voiced his own strong opinion about Donaghy's comments:
"I'm so sick of Tim Donaghy commenting on things. You can't have less credibility but even beyond that what really upsets me about Tim Donaghy is... look, Tim Donaghy's unethical, illegal behavior was exposed and so what he decides to do for personal gain was throw everyone he used to work with under the bus. There's nothing I respect less than that, number one."
"And number two, look, I watched that series; every minute of every game of that series. Even if you buy into the fact that Dwyane Wade was getting some calls, that doesn't explain even most of the series, let alone all of it."
"I watched those games. Did he get the benefit of some calls? Yeah, guess what, so did Michael Jordan in his run but it doesn't mean those guys were not great and Dwyane Wade was absolutely great in that series. And for (Tim Donaghy) to try to take credit from him, to me, is disgusting."
"Dwyane Wade does more in average days than Tim Donaghy's done in his life. And he's going to get on and try to demean that? C'mon."
"If that guy's not the most despicable person in sports right now, who is?"
It's clear that Donaghy's primary motivation for appearing on radio shows is to drum up more business for his book since he makes reference to it in every other sentence that comes out of his mouth. It's also clear that radio shows love having him on because he makes for great show fodder, especially as the NBA playoffs reach their crescendo. He may be "despicable." That's up to personal opinion. But if he had no credibility, why would radio shows continue giving him a voice? Could it be that after so many years of cultivating a secret society for its officials, it has led to a feeding frenzy once a "rogue" is identified and starts squealing?
It wasn't long ago that the public didn't know who was officiating a game until they were seen at the site. It finally dawned on the NBA, through the Donaghy scandal, that the less information you try to hide, the harder it is for gambling insiders to pick up information that could affect the integrity of the contest.
Another great time to repeat an important mantra the NBA and other entities should some day take to heart: transparency gets you further than secrecy ever will.
On an unrelated note, it sounds like Cuban and newly minted New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov are about to become fast friends. Cuban to the Le Batard Show:
"I haven't met him yet but I took Russian in high school and a little bit in college so I can't wait to talk Russian to him and give him a hard time."
"I want to party with this dude. Can you imagine him on South Beach when they're playing the Heat? Oh Lord!"
Cuban then goes on to question whether the Russian billionaire can be an effective owner if he only shows up for 10 games a season.
A valid concern, especially if the Nets don't manage to make a free agent splash and struggle once again through next season. Although, across town, Knicks owner James Dolan doesn't seem to care about remaining largely silent to the public.
Early indications are that the Russian may have a little more public relations savvy in him than Dolan. If next season gets out of hand, you can likely bet on a few previously unscheduled flights from Moscow to the Tri-state Area.
One guy Cuban likely won't be partying with? Kenyon Martin. A year after his run-in with Martin and the Nugget power forward's mom, Cuban had this to say about him during a highbrow segment called "Douche or No Douche?":
"My new best friend. I'll go with douche."
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