Sportsfrog.com

Not over. Not yet.

Martin on Saturday about Cuban:

He’s a coward.

Cuban, doubling down on what prompted his rather curious and uncool actions toward Martin’s mother, in an e-mail to HoopsHype, said:

But Cuban, in an e-mail to HoopsHype.com, wrote he wants Martin to take responsibility for his actions, which he wrote included calling a wife of a Mavericks staff member a “(expletive) fat pig’’ and making an obscene gesture.

Guess neither of them are heeding the David Stern there’s-nothing-to-see-here memo.

…being affected by the economic downturn? Recall that the New Orleans Hornets attempted to basically give away an extremely valuable piece of their puzzle at the trade deadline when they tried to give Tyson Chandler to Oklahoma City for a handful of magic beans. That fell through because the Thunder decided after a physical they were uncomfortable with Chandler’s back. But New Orleans’ desire to significantly cut payroll has gotten the Mavericks thinking. And the thinking, per the Dallas Morning News, goes a little something like this:

Picture Chris Paul in a Mavericks uniform. That might make it easier for MFFLs to watch this weekend’s home-and-home series with New Orleans if Paul dominates Dallas, as he does most times the Hornets and Mavs meet. But it’s also a realistic scenario for next season.

The thought has apparently crossed Mark Cuban’s mind. Rumor has it the Mavs brass let the powers that be in the Big Easy know before the trade deadline that they’d take the Hornets’ two worst contracts off their hands in a package with Paul. I’d wager the value of Paul’s four-year, max contract extension that kicks in next season that the Mavericks will put on the full-court press with that proposal this summer. Acquiring Paul, a perennial MVP candidate who hasn’t even hit his prime yet, and a couple of his overpaid pals would be a no-brainer basketball deal for the Mavs. For the Hornets, such a deal would make sense only because of the dollars.

I will say this, if something were to go down where Chris Paul and two shit-tacular contracts like those that Peja and Tyson Chandler have are sent to Dallas for only expiring contracts, the NBA will have become a pure joke. And should immediately fold about ten franchises in an effort to fix its financial house. But I sure don’t blame the ever bright Mark Cuban for trying to exploit an advantage in this turmoil.

Mark Cuban.

$25,000 lighter in the wallet per the NBA for a tweet he sent criticizing a ref following Friday’s Mavericks game. Oh twitter, can your evil be contained?

…that Mark Cuban cares as much about his team as its die-hard fans do. Which you cannot say for every owner. Not even close. Last Saturday night the Grizzlies lost to Oklahoma City. An Oklahoma City team without Kevin Durant. A few of us cared. Grizzlies owner Mike Heisley who has been making all decisions for this joke of a franchise (Chris Wallace is GM in name only) since Jerry West left leaves “the core” together, eschewing chances to bring in actual talent at the trade deadline, does not seem to. At all. No wonder this didn’t work for the franchise in Vancouver.

Anyway, back to Cuban. Monday night the Mavs lost to the same Oklahoma City team that Memphis did, the Thunder being without Durant AND Jeff Green. Does anyone have to wonder how Mark Cuban felt about that? No:

“It’s only one game, which I keep reminding myself of today. But let’s just say I wasn’t happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks.

“If each player can’t take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season. The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back. I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.

Bless you sir. I have personally witnessed at least four games from the Grizzlies this year that were likely as poor effort-wise as Cuban watched from his team on Monday. And there have been others for which I was fortunate not to be in attendance. And at no point has anyone associated with Grizzlies ownership or management drawn that kind of line in the sand. Or owned the problem. I wish they had an owner that did.