FanHouse MarkCuban

Mark Cuban is good for basketball and has been quite kind in terms of accessibility. Hey, he's even suggested FanHouse could sponsor his Mavericks in the future! But sometimes he bleats ideas and stances so unbelievably backwards you wonder how he ever got to where he's at.

Take his latest screed against sports blogs, for example. He bemoans the invention of rumors, which leads so-called "real reporters" to chase down dead ends. Cuban's solution to end this vicious cycle of, um, reporting work? To have ESPN create a blacklist of blogs which have reported inaccurate information, and which shall never be taken seriously again.

Make no mistake about it: Mark Cuban knows his mixed martial arts. Talk to him for just a few minutes about the sport and that much will be made abundantly clear. Also obvious is the fact that he really loves the sport.

"I'm not going to get involved in something unless I like it," Cuban told FanHouse at Wednesday's "Affliction: Trilogy" press conference in New York City.

Cuban was on hand to promote the fact that the undercard of Affliction's next event will be televised exclusively on HDNet. FanHouse spoke to the owner of the Dallas Mavericks about Affliction and his relationship with UFC president Dana White. Naturally, he also gave his brief take on the NBA Finals. The full video interview is below.

The WNBA's Phoenix Mercury showed off its new jerseys Monday. The notable change is the absence of either "Phoenix" or "Mercury" across the front of the kits. The team branding has been replaced by ... corporate branding, as seen in European football. The WNBA granted its franchises permission to enter jersey sponsorship agreements, and the Mercury took the plunge, reportedly netting $1 million from the identity protection company.

The NBA will follow suit, right? Well, maybe. League spokesman Tim Frank told me there are no plans for corporate branding on NBA player jerseys. But the league has studied the idea for several years and will continue to look it. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he loves the idea and even joked that for the right price, FanHouse can get on the front of Dirk's jersey. Let's make a deal, provided those magnificently awful Hefty bags of 2004 stay retired.

As of Monday morning, the Bobby Lashley vs. Mike Cook fight video had been seen almost two million times on YouTube. This is tremendous exposure for MMA, Lashley, Maximum Fighting Championship, and most importantly, HDNet.

However, the excitement surrounding Friday's MFC 21 telecast was surely short-lived for HDNet officials, as Time Warner Cable announced on Sunday that they would be dropping HDNet and HDNet movies from their channel lineup "on or about" May 31.

Cherry Picking recaps Wednesday's NBA playoff action.

The Nuggets led the Mavericks by as many as 17 points late in the third quarter, but midway through the fourth the Mavs started to make a run, cutting the deficit all the way down to six. A would-be blowout was suddenly a two-possession game; was this where the Nuggets would fall apart?

Not quite. With the ball in his hands and just two seconds left on the shot clock, Carmelo Anthony nailed a 25-footer that left the Mavericks so disgusted that Antoine Wright drew a tech foul, putting Chauncey Billups on the free throw line to push Denver's lead safely back to double-digits once and for all. From there, Denver cruised to a 124-110 series-clinching victory.

"Yeah, that was a spark," Anthony said after the game. "If I told you I knew it was going in, I'd be lying to you. That was a lucky shot. It went in. I think that shot right there sparked the momentum for us."

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The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

There's a lull in the sporting world in terms of exciting things to talk about (well, OK, that's only because we refuse to talk about Manny Ramirez or Brett Favre and the NBA crew has Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban pretty much sewn up) so we did what anyone else would do: we invited* Tiger Woods on the show. Tiger declined* but we forged on and just talked about him behind his back instead: specifically, are top 10 finishes good enough for El Tigre. Also, Ryan and I discuss David Feherty's aggressive writing style as well as what sort of characteristics define a hateable professional athlete.

Remember what David Stern said after the "Malice at the Palace" riot? "The events were shocking, repulsive and inexcusable -- a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA," the commissioner fumed in November 2004. "We must affirm that the NBA will strive to exemplify the best that can be offered by professional sports and not allow our sport to be debased by what seem to be declining expectations for the behavior of fans and athletes alike.'

Well, I'm still waiting for Stern to act on a shocking, repulsive and inexcusable chain of events in the Denver-Dallas playoff series, which began when America's most infantile 50-year-old, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, told the mother of Denver's Kenyon Martin that her son is a thug. In a league that doesn't hesitate to suspend players and announce penalties swiftly, it's unconscionable that Stern didn't instantly suspend Cuban on Monday and ban him from American Airlines Arena that night, which would have subdued an understandably enraged Martin and quelled rising tensions surrounding the episode. Instead, Stern and his minions issued no punishment to Cuban, allowing the scene in the Dallas arena to turn ugly.

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At least now we don't have to bother with a poll to determine who is the dumbest player in the NBA. Kenyon Martin wins this one without debate.

Mark Cuban was wrong for the way he behaved after the Dallas/Denver Game 3 when he ran around the court looking like a fan who needed to be put into handcuffs. He was wrong for telling Martin's mother that her son was a thug.

But sometimes the truth hurts. Martin sure played the role after Game 4. Instead of worrying about all the things he did wrong in the loss to Dallas, he goes off the court with his eye and his mouth on Cuban.

In the video after the jump, filmed Monday night after Game 4 of the Mavericks/Nuggets series, Kenyon Martin says some NSFW things to Mark Cuban, which may or may not be deemed a threat, but which most certainly will be talked about while Cuban skips Game 5 of the series. Specifically, he calls him a "f****t motherf***er," so, yeah, unless you work for Lenny Dykstra, you probably want to bust out your headphones to watch this epic, NSFW goodness.

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DALLAS -- This Western Conference semifinal series between the Mavericks and Nuggets has gotten out of control.

All four games have been decided in the fourth quarter in some fashion, with the Nuggets either pulling away or the Mavericks blowing it. Some Mavericks fans acted like soccer hooligans during Game 4, harassing some of the Nuggets' family members, including Carmelo Anthony's girlfriend and relatives of Kenyon Martin. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gotten into it with Martin's mother, Lydia Moore, calling Kenyon a thug (though he has since apologized).

If Nuggets fans think they can return the favor to Cuban, for Game 5 in Denver, forget it. Cuban won't be there.

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