In a lengthy blog post published March 9, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban apologized for a homophobic remark first reported by the Phoenix on March 7 that he made over the weekend at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. The comment came during on on-stage interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons. Though the interview was being recorded for Simmons’ BS Report, the offending remark was edited out of the podcast version of the interview.
Cuban was both combative and insightfulâ┚¬â€Âneither side of his personality being any surprise to basketball watchers. He took visible glee in taking shots at Simmons, and not in a particularly good-natured way. At one point, he sneered that he wished Simmons ran an NBA teamâ┚¬â€Âso that the Mavericks could crush them.
The atmosphere turned even weirder when Cuban began telling the story of how he’d almost fired a Mavs employee for encouraging Dallas fans to do the wave. Cuban hates the wave.
“I’d rather have 60 minutes of Kiss Cam,” he said, to laughs. Simmons has long been on record as being a fan of the Kiss Camâ┚¬â€Âhe's even jokingly suggested that it become its own TV showâ┚¬â€Âand piped up in favor of it.
“I like the Kiss Cam,” Simmons said.
