FanHouse Mark Cuban

Mark Deeks of the hilarious and insightful ShamSports.com recently took a look at the history of the NBA luxury tax. It's a good survey chock full of numerous gems, but one in particular stuck out to me.

Since the inception of the luxury tax in 2002-03, only two teams have crossed the threshold every season it has been collected: the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks. That the Knicks have had the highest payroll for basically the entire decade is hilarious itself, but just for kicks, let's compare the two team's records in those luxury tax seasons.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

This weekend in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao will face Miguel Cotto in what is being described as one of the biggest fights of the year. In the locker room of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, the fight is the talk of the town. In this video, we catch up with Maverick JJ Barea, who tells us why he thinks his good friend Cotto will beat Pacquiao. We also get Mark Cuban's prediction and learn from Kris Humphries which Dallas star would make a great fighter.

Check out the video after the jump.

Mark Cuban is back on Bud Selig's doorstep with a sack full of money. This time he's got his eyes on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As the divorce drama of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife (and, depending on the courts, co-owner) Jamie plays out in Los Angeles, speculation has started that the team may hit the market. That's what happened with the Padres, you'll remember, when John Moores sold a stake in the team to pay off his ex-wife. If it plays out that way further up the California coastline, Cuban told the Los Angeles Times that he'd be interested in buying the team.

OutSports.com reported Tuesday that Drew Gooden made homophobic remarks to two hecklin' Clippers fans after the Mavericks' Saturday game in Los Angeles. One of the Clippers fans happened to be actor Chris Wylde (pictured, far right), who has -- no joke -- appearances on a show named Heckle U to his credit. (The plot of Heckle U, according to IMDB? Two dudes change the course of basketball games by heckling the opposing teams into submission.)

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reportedly emailed Wylde, saying the team would deal with Gooden. Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reports that the NBA is currently investigating the matter, while ESPN's Tim MacMahon has an anonymous source who claims it wasn't Gooden who made the remark. (No word on whether that anonymous source is Gooden.)

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

It has become popular nowadays to take a movie or idea that was popular 20 years ago and revitalize it, tweaking it for a more modern touch, in order to attract both new and old audiences. It incorporates the base elements of the original and then features a modern "twist" in order to seem "hip."

In a lot of ways, that's the story of the 2009-10 Dallas Mavericks. They're not the same old Mavericks, but they're not the new Mavericks either.

During last season's playoff series between the Nuggets and the Mavericks, things got a little crazy between Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban. After Game 3, Cuban said a fan yelled out that the Nuggets "were thugs," and he couldn't resist yelling over to Martin's mother, who was in the stands at the time, "That included your son."

Things got uglier after that, with Mavs' fans harassing some of the Nuggets' players' family members in the stands, and culminated with Martin yelling some obscenities in Cuban's direction, before the Mavs' owner attempted to end all of this by posting a late night apology on his blog.

It would probably have been best for everyone involved to leave this incident in the past, but Kenyon Martin, in an interview with Yahoo! Sports, couldn't resist getting in one more shot at Cuban.

On Friday, Warriors captain Stephen Jackson put himself on the trade block. By late Saturday, dots were being connected, and Jackson was being rumored to be a possibility for the Dallas Mavericks.

Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com reported that, separate from the Jackson rumor, Golden State coach Don Nelson had been talking to folks in Dallas about potential trades. Of course, Nelson's son Donnie runs the Mavericks front office, which would make this wholly uninteresting ... if not for the ongoing war between the elder Nelson and Mavs owner Mark Cuban, which makes this sort of aisle-reaching notable.

So, is it Jackson that Nelson is trying to peddle? Or is something else going on?

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The news that Mark Cuban forced German superstar Dirk Nowitzki to skip this summer's Eurobasket tournament was tempered by the fact that Cuban and Nowitzki brokered that deal last summer on the basis that Dirk has given his summers to the national team forever. But the case of Puerto Rican Maverick J.J. Barea isn't quite as tidy.

Barea had shoulder surgery in May, and feels as though he is back to 100%. He's eager to represent FIBA Americas host P.R., hoping to help his team win a place in the 2010 World Championships. But Cuban has denied Barea permission to participate. Barea told a Puerto Rican newspaper that the Mavs decree was "the worst news I've been given."

The demise of Affliction Entertainment will not simply go away after one press release. The fact of the matter is that they had a lot of partners involved. One of those partners was Mark Cuban's HDNet television network, which was scheduled to air the undercard of the now-canceled "Affliction: Trilogy."

FanHouse spoke to Cuban via e-mail about the fall of Affliction and his current relationship with the UFC. Check out the interview below.

The NBA has been in full-on arms race mode this summer, starting when Shaq packed his bags for "The Rock N' Roll Capital of the World." And it hasn't just been high-profile starters being snatched off the market by contenders. Teams are also focusing on depth as a way to gain an advantage. The Dallas Mavericks have been particularly active, re-signing Jason Kidd, acquiring Shawn Marion, and making a failed bid for Marcin Gortat. After the Magic surprisingly matched their offer for Gortat, it appeared the Mavericks had accepted fate and were content to head into the season as is.

Well, not so much. Saturday night Marc Stein (you may have heard his name once or twice) confirmed details of a one-year deal struck between the Mavericks and free agent forward Drew Gooden, which Gooden also confirmed via Twitter (it's so hot right now).

So what exactly does Gooden provide the Mavericks?