Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban calls NBA 'stupid' for letting off players for free in Olympics
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has found a new reason to lash out at NBA. This time it at least makes some sense. In his recent comments, Cuban branded league's decision of letting NBA players play in the Olympics for free as the most stupid of things happening in current times.
His recent comments are sure to stir up a lot of anger from a lot of people, including the NBA Commissioner David Stern, but Cuban does not care as long as he has made his point. These comments have come shortly after Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen came out publically to demand that the players should be offered compensation to play for their country.
Now Cuban has come out to have his say on the matter and has demanded a share for the owners as well;
“It’s the biggest mistake the NBA makes,’’ he said. “If you look up stupid in the dictionary, you see a picture of the USA Dream Team playing for free for corporate America so the U.S. Olympic Committee can make millions of dollars. If you come up with something that you own, that you give it to me for free so I can make billions of dollars, I want it” – Cuban said.
He did go on to speak about how the dream team helped in the globalization of the game of basketball but was adamant that every stakeholder in NBA should be getting a fair share of compensation as everybody plays a significant part in the career building of several of these star players.
Cuban also emphasized that Olympics should have an age-limit of 22 and under in order to help promote the young talent. If it can’t function like that then demanding to be paid does not seem like a bad option to him. He further went on to say that he thinks that it is tiring for the NBA Players seeing they already have to go through a hectic schedule and on top of that they have to participate in the Olympics. With the NBA season shortened to 66 games, it does seem a little too much to ask.
“They get hurt, you both get hurt, players and teams. And players do get hurt. And then what? Just stupid. They should play high-school players. Give them experience.’’ – Cuban said.
But if we look at the bigger picture, players love to represent their country and are very proud of the fact that they have been chosen to play in Olympics. So, the games may not be all about making money to some people and with the Olympics starting in August, we would see a lot of players crying their hearts out for their country.
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