Cuban's Display Shameful, but NBA a Mess, Too

If the NBA could establish clarity on what is and isn't a flagrant foul, maybe Dallas' Antoine Wright would have bear-hugged Carmelo Anthony instead of bumping him like they were dancing to Lady GaGa in a club. Maybe an intentional foul would have been called, rather than a non-call that led to Anthony's game-winning three-pointer. Maybe the Mavericks would have stolen Game 3 of their series with Denver, leaving them even with the Nuggets today and not down 3-1.

And then maybe the league, which has enough perception issues when it comes to playoff officiating, wouldn't have taken the embarrassing step of acknowledging the missed call two hours later, which now changes the postseason slogan to "Where Apologies Happen." And then maybe Mark Cuban, the ageless frat rat who owns the Mavs, wouldn't have infuriated Denver's Kenyon Martin, who was leaving the court as the Nuggets were taunted as "thugs" by Dallas fans when Cuban looked at Martin's smiling mother and said, "That includes your son." And then maybe her son wouldn't have vowed revenge on Cuban if and when their paths crossed Monday night at American Airlines Arena , where Martin appeared to be yelling and pointing at Cuban after the game.

"Don't say nothing to my kids or my family," said Martin, who grew up in Dallas. "If you got something to say, say it to me. But I'm going to take care of it. I'm not going to do the whole media thing, back and forth. That's his thing. I'm more of a face-to-face type of dude. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, then I will address it. But I got a game to go win. At some point I will, but I got a game to go win, first and foremost. So that's my focus and concentration right now.

"I don't back away from nobody except the law ... When the game is over, you don't say nothing to nobody's parents, especially mine. My mom or my kids, you don't have no words for them. I'll take care of it."

All this, I submit, because the NBA doesn't have its act together in terms of calling games with consistency, uniformity and common sense.

Has it ever occurred to David Stern, who tends to think of himself as a perfect commissioner for a perfect league, that officiating snafus muck up EVERY SINGLE POSTSEASON? Sure, this is about as low as Cuban ever has stooped, perhaps needing psychological help after branding an enemy player as a "thug" -- an ugly, hateful word in 2009 -- and doing so directly to his mother. Sure, Cuban should have been suspended from the arena, fin ed heavily and required to apologize to Martin's mother. Sure, Wright could have been more obvious in committing the intentional foul, and his coach, Rick Carlisle, could have informed the officials that it was coming. Sure, players don't have to aim for heads in the heat of battle, which lead to flagrant fouls. But face it: The league seems to spark and exacerbate virtually every conflict because the refs and their bosses are confusing the hell out of everyone, most importantly the fans.

It started when some of us wondered about flagrant-foul politics. In the vintage Boston-Chicago series, Rajon Rondo cracked Brad Miller across the face in the final seconds of regulation -- and didn't receive a flagrant foul because it was deemed unintentional. What, Rondo wasn't going for the face in an obvious foul situation? What would be unintentional about that? Meanwhile, Derek Fisher of the Lakers and Dwight Howard and Rafer Alston of the Magic correctly received one-game suspensions for similar cheap shots above the neck. Monday night in Dallas, flagrant fouls were called on the Mavericks that didn't look flagrant, while Anthony was lucky not to have been ejected for a slap. Last Friday night, Ron Artest of the Rockets was ejected for a second-degree flagrant foul, even though the Lakers thought it was unwarranted and the league office downgraded it the next day to a first-degree flagrant. Then there was Boston's Kendrick Perkins, who nailed Orlando's Mickael Pietrus in the head with an el bow and received no suspension. Baffled? You're not alone.

"I don't think the league knows, to be honest with you," Lakers star Kobe Bryant complained to reporters. "I think it's something that must be addressed in the off-season, because it's just all over the place ... It's just so subjective, it's ridiculous."

"Even the guys announcing the game have no idea," grumbled Bryant's coach, Phil Jackson. "Is that a foul? Is it a flagrant-1? Or a flagrant-2? And then they're surprised when it's a flagrant-2 or no flagrant at all."

Said Celtics coach Doc Rivers: "I'm so sick of this flagrant foul (talk). It's bugging the hell out of me."

At least Stu Jackson, the NBA's top cop, is cognizant of the issue. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said Monday that the league must teach coaches and players about what constitutes a flagrant foul. "I look at it as opportunity for us to further educate," Jackson said. "Certainly, the league office has consistently communicated to both the competition committee members, as well as the teams, on an ongoing basis as these fouls occur. But if there's still some uncertainty with respect to what is a flagrant foul, what's a suspendable offense and what a hard foul is, then it's incumbent upon us here at the league office to do a better job going forward of educating everyone."

Certainly, it's understandable why the league wants to protect the head and facial areas from violent attacks. But why are some obvious shots to the head and face acceptable and others not? All it does it start a domino effect that causes Wright, who was trying to foul Anthony and did make contact twice, to avoid a bear-hug in apparent fear of a flagrant foul. That shows how much the league is in the heads of the players. The league should not be in the heads of the players, particularly in the postseason, when we want clear minds and wonderful basketball.

"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to Derek Fisher him, just take him out, and then I get a flagrant foul late in the game?" Wright said. "I'm upset like everyone else in this locker room, and I feel like we have a right to be upset. I was positive a whistle was coming, just like everybody else was positive the whistle was coming. I made a play on the ball like I was told in the huddle, and the call wasn't made."

"Unfortunately, in a game where there were 61 fouls called, an official decides not to call a foul when we were trying to give one," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said of Mark Wunderlich. "It's just a shame, because Mark's a good official, an experienced official. I assume they know we have a foul to give and we'd take it in that situation. I'm yelling at Antoine: `Get him, get him, take it.' And no whistle blow s. It's just extremely disappointing. Antoine was so sure he fouled him, he stopped."

Oddly, the league issued a statement that said Wunderlich made the wrong call. In one sense, it's important for the NBA to own up to referee errors in the wake of a point-shaving scandal involving a veteran official, Tim Donaghy. But if Stern's people get in the business of apologizing for mistakes, aren't they heading down the same murky road of ambiguity and inconsistency? Won't they have to apologize every time there's a gaffe? And if they don't, won't teams be upset? "At the end of the Dallas-Denver game this evening, the officials missed an intentional foul committed by Antoine Wright on Carmelo Anthony, just prior to Anthony's three-point basket," Joel Litvin, NBA president of league and basketball operations, said in the statement.



Wow. Next time an official really screws up, I hope Litvin isn't out to dinner or otherwise predisposed. Did he think about sending another memo Monday night when seven technical fouls were called on the Nuggets and Mavericks, one on Wright for flipping his wrist at official Steve Javie after a foul call in the fourth quarter?

The league's Saturday night announcement didn't help the mood of Cuban, who shoved a cameraman amid the post-game frenzy. As he left through the arena tunnel, Cuban noticed Martin's mother, Lydia Moore, smiling as she sat nearby. According to Martin's agent, Brian Dyke , Cuban approached her and said, "Your son is a punk." Cuban denied that in an e-mail to FanHouse.com Monday, writing, "Absolutely not." But he did tell the Denver Post that he did yell, "That includes your son," when fans were screaming the "thugs" comments to the Nuggets.

Either way, Cuban has sinned and shamed himself again. Will this man-child ever grow up? He's 50, for gosh sakes, yet he's so immersed in his persecution complex that it obscures his very good deeds as a people's owner and youthful, dynamic thinker. It's almost tragic when a smart man lets his emotions turn him into a clown. His coach, Carlisle, defends him as any job-holding employee would, saying that he has enjoyed his first year with Cuban more than any of his years in coaching. "I would swear by this guy," he said. "He's emotional, but his emotions -- however they manifest -- are all directed toward one thing, and I'm absolutely convinced that is putting forth the best product for our fans."

Denver's George Karl, sort of nuts himself, also defended Cuban as "very good for the game of basketball, but he's very eclectic and very different." As for Martin's wish to settle matters with Cuban, Karl wants him to wait. "Kenyon's a man. He doesn't want to discuss his problems with (the media). He wants to discuss his problems with Mark," Karl said. "I would prefer he probably do it in the summertime. That would probably be best served for both. Let the emotion go away and go have dinner."

Before Monday night's elimination game, Cuban tried to break bread with Martin's mother via the media. "I'm happy to let her sit next to me. I've got no problem with Mrs. Martin," he said, not even doing the research to get her name right. The damage already was done.

If pro basketball isn't an easy game to officiate, with all its speed and physicality and quick judgments, the NBA must do better. I realize these conspiracy theories date back to the '90s, when Jackson first suggested the league and NBC were in cahoots on the length of certain postseason series. But here in 2009, Amazing Can't Happen when the gray area is grayer than David Stern's hair.

"Flagrants in this game, it's a little gray. There are some gray areas there, and I don't have a solution," Houston's Shane Battier said. "A lot of it comes down to judgment calls of referees. I don't have a good answer. It would be nice to get some dialogue and get some discussion and some real talk, not just lip service to address it."

Stop making sense, Shane. No one else is in this league.