Mark Cuban was asked on Dan Patrick’s Direct TV show today by the host, “Better (off-field/court) image right now, the NFL or the NBA?”
Cuban said, “The NBA, no question. It’s non-stop with the NFL. I feel sorry for Roger Goodell. Every day it’s somebody different…” (audio)
Thankfully, Patrick interrupted Cuban’s remark at that point to provide the necessary context:
Patrick: “Just the number of players too, with the NFL…”
Cuban: “It’s a numbers game, that’s certainly part of it. But the NFL has more, if you’re accounting for it all, whether it’s in absolute numbers or percentage numbers, the NFL probably has more problems.”
The key word there is “probably.” If you look at the percentage of players with legal problems from the two leagues, along with a similar per capita comparison of overall player mischief, I’m not so sure Cuban’s claim would be true.
What we’re all more likely to agree on is that too many players from both leagues fail to observe basic societal rules. With those issues continuing to crop up, neither league has put sufficient deterrents in place to slow the unacceptable trend.
In other words, any criticism coming from NBA interests about the NFL on player conduct can’t be made without a disclaimer or six.
If I was Patrick, my next question to Cuban would’ve been: “Okay Mark, if what you’re saying is correct, why is the NFL so much more popular overall than your league?”
Cuban’s likely response: “Because the other NBA owners and David Stern don’t listen to me.”
Also today on SPORTSbyBROOKS:
Swedish fitness model critiques shirtless Steve Spurrier’s self-touted personal workout:
“His training style to me sounds very old school, but not in a good way. I wouldn’t call his workout really smart or progressive training.” Read full story.
1:13 pm on April 21st, 2010
Funny how you really don’t get the sheer number of problem athletes in the NHL. Maybe a few entourages are in order so they can catch up…
1:27 pm on April 21st, 2010
The next question should have been regarding Dirk Nowitski’s off court actions. Yeah, he’s making great decisions…
1:49 pm on April 21st, 2010
EASportsInDaGame what the hell does Nowitski’s issues have to do with this? Im pretty sure they were talking about players being the criminals, not the victims.
2:14 pm on April 21st, 2010
Well said Gordie! Both these leagues are for thugs!
2:40 pm on April 21st, 2010
Then NHL guys get to beat each other up in the games. They don’t have to go to bars to do it.
3:25 pm on April 21st, 2010
It’s all the damn africans
3:36 pm on April 21st, 2010
Funny…Cuban talkin the effects image has on the league
Ever look in the mirror Mark?
3:50 pm on April 21st, 2010
Both leagues are full of half wits who never had to learn how to behave in a civilized society. All of those tattoos just ooze intelligence, let me tell you…
4:04 pm on April 21st, 2010
@Gordie Howe
The fact is 50 NHL player’s can beat up alien orphan babies in a burning home thats hiding bin laden with jimmy hoffas body buried under it and still no one would care about the NHL players.
NHL players aren’t newsworthy, the media covered Candace Parker of the WNBA’s pregnancy during her off season more than Sidney Crosby during his off season.
Hell she even made more covers of sports mags during her pregnancy, than any hockey player this decade.
4:07 pm on April 21st, 2010
@gordie howes sack are you implying that no one likes hockey?
4:20 pm on April 21st, 2010
Hey Mark, who’s the D bag sitting next to you? Bet it’s an NBA Player.
And more importantly, why do you look like a wanna be Simon Cowell.
The NFL, NBA are equal, in that each has far more ignorant, “a hole” players (and Owners) than any other pro league in the world.
4:27 pm on April 21st, 2010
I think people sometimes forget that players fight in hockey all the time. Fighting is almost part of the game. And it’s not just hitting (tackling, checking, etc.)… players actually square off and straight out fight. The referees even allow it for a minute. Maybe it’s ok to fight if you’re white…. idk
4:28 pm on April 21st, 2010
James, my point being that Cuban is trying to point the finger away from his own team’s past player issues (Josh Howard, Jason Kidd, etc).
Hello, pot? It’s the kettle.
4:33 pm on April 21st, 2010
No Im saying the media, mag, web, blog, radio and TV knows that no one cares about Hockey and its players.
You said you dont get these types of crimes or problems in Hockey, I say they do……BUT….no one cares to hear about it.
case and point Big Ben does a chick in a bar, the U.S media stops to report the news, thats all they have talked about for weeks.
Mike Danton of the saint louis Blues goes to jail for Conspiracy to commit murder, and the world just says WHO?…SO!
Craig MacTavish of the Boston Bruins was charged with vehicular homicide..NO ONE CARES..it never made news, no one was outside the court when he was sentenced…the world said WHO?….SO!
last year lebron didnt shake a team mates hand during the end of a play off game, they talked about it for weeks on TV and radio
Sidney Crosby was too busy celebrating during to Stanley Cup Finals HE didnt shake hands with the other team…..no one noticed or talked about it.
so my point is…people watch Hockey, people Like Hockey…but no one cares about the players…and the NHL cant lead off sportcenter nor can Dan Patrick talk about it for an hour.
Espn can interview gary Vitti the trainer that wraps Kobes finger and more people will listen to him on the radio that the coach of the Pittsburgh penguins.
4:42 pm on April 21st, 2010
Did you say NO ONE CARES ABOUT HOCKEY?
heres proof:
The UTAH Jazz gets higher rating during a regular season game JUST IN THE STATE OF UTAH ALONE.
Than the entire NHL gets on national tv during the playoffs this year
The first five nights of coverage on Versus have the highest cable ratings for the beginning of the postseason since 2002. The average of 543,000 viewers is up 21 percent from last year.
Utah Jazz television broadcasts on FSN Utah have garnered an average cable HHR of 6.0 in 2010 with a 7.0 since February 1 announced Chris Baum, senior vice president of broadcasting for the Utah Jazz. This ranks the Jazz second in the league among all team regional sports network ratings behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“We are very proud of our broadcast and production teams,” said Baum. “Our highest rated game thus far this season was a 9.9 HHR on February 9 as the Jazz faced the Los Angeles Clippers. This broadcast secured a higher rating than all local television news broadcasts in the Salt Lake market during the same time period.”
4:42 pm on April 21st, 2010
Mark Cuban of all people, has no business talking about stuff like this, when Dirk Nowinski happens to play for his team, and has had a few issues. Mark, until you win an NBA Title, just keep your hole shut. As for the NBA itself, they could stand to lose about 10,000 of their tatooes. You want disgusting athletes, look at some of those idiots, with that Anderson punk in Denver leading the way.
4:43 pm on April 21st, 2010
nice to see that the world listens 2 days ago to Colin Cowherd on ESPN. This is almost a joke. he talked about the problems in NFL, long before Cuban did. Hey I agree the NFL is a joke, but please give the credit to ESPN radio. They had this aniled long before so dope in thr Dallas office, dropped the info on the owner.
4:57 pm on April 21st, 2010
You can love or hate Mark Cuban, but he has built the finest facility in the NBA, and you should see each player’s dressing room in the locker room. It is like a palace in there. Plus he is known for almost always paying top dollars for talent. The exception would be the millions he paid for Shawn “I can’t catch a pass” Bradley and refusing to pony up to resign Steve Nash which most definately cost him a title against the Heat. Dallas would have easily closed out that season title with Nash. Nash did not want to leave Dallas and his best friend Dirk. Dallas has a good chance this year as the addition of Haywood may get them to the title game. If I had almost 2 billion dollars, I would have an ego like Mark Cuban also.
5:08 pm on April 21st, 2010
cubin always has a big mouth. he is the poster boy of yuppie excess thru the tech boom. he cant stand that the nba is #2 behind the nfl #1. baseball has sunk to #3 it used to be swapped. cubin’s ego just cant handle #2 he wants #1. he is the kid in class who always put his hand up to do a #2 never a #1 could never reach it. as for the nhl just read canadian news hockey is a religion while the cfl is #3 behind #2 figure skating! lol
5:08 pm on April 21st, 2010
nobody cares you are right. you know i have always wondered why has the nfl snubbed your state? i live in florida we have 3 teams. utah is like the poor boy step child. rarely watch the jazz. loved them in the 80’s with malone! sice then i watch if you play the celtics
5:10 pm on April 21st, 2010
Face it people the days of clean cut golden boys in any sport are long over. You don’t get to be mentioned on ESPN or any other so called sports network for your charitable contributions or your good work in the community. People want to bemoan the fact that there are no sports heroes anymore but they won’t turn on the TV to see a story about great sportsmanship or great charity but they can’t find the remote fast enough to hear about another sports figure gone bad. Look at the Tiger Woods coverage for example. I heard more about what he had for lunch than I heard about who won any of the tournaments while he was gone. WE don’t care about our heroes until they mess up. IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS is the news saying and it is 1000% correct. If you really want to change the behavior of these people do it with your wallets!! MONEY IS THE ONLY THING THEY UNDERSTAND OR CARE ABOUT!!!! We fans are dog dodo on their shoes until we stop showing up for games and buying thier jerseys then suddenly they feel this need to “reach out” to us and “show us they really care”. yeah right. in the meantime can we all stop whining about these leagues of thugs and gangsta wannabes. THey will not change until we fans change
5:36 pm on April 21st, 2010
Just wanted to add to the tattoo bashing, actually wanted to enlighten some of you on the history of tattoos. Do not mistake my like for tattoos for my like of tattoos heavily worn on the overhyped and overpaid athletes of our generation. Tattoos were worn by our ancestors to tell stories about where they had been, who they were, and who they had conquered in battle. Of course they have also been decorative, and many tattoos began as small designs meant to represent a portion of time in a persons life. I would dare any of you to question a Yakuza member why he wears his full body tat, or why the skinhead with prison tats sports his. I personally feel that sports stars should not have themselves tattood, it weakens what tattoos represent for many people.
5:38 pm on April 21st, 2010
AngryJohnny–you are an idiot. Go back to your “Tea party” and leave the discussion to the adults.
It’s the celebrity culture that encourages bad behavior across the board. When people stop being given a pass on behaving responsibly just because they are good at sports,this will stop. As to the “clean cut golden boys” the media was different then. Babe Ruth was a drunk and a womanizer. Ty Cobb was a raging racist a-hole. Joe DiMaggio beat up Marilyn Monroe. But these things didn’t come out until these people were dead. Same with our politicians. Kennedy had way more affairs than Clinton,etc.,but back then the media didn’t report that stuff as readily. Same behavior,different times.
5:38 pm on April 21st, 2010
By a show of hands, how many of you work with someone you would classify as a “thug”? Would you say there are more of less of them in your work place than say normies? The NFL and NBA are no exception. A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE of players in each league actually get into legal trouble. So some of you are the worst kind of “never made it” douchebags in existence. If it offends you, it’s probably you. Stop deriding people more talented than yourselves and get a life already!
5:48 pm on April 21st, 2010
bahaha…shows how stupid Cuban is…Both sports have their meatheads..at least burress shot himself in a nightclub and didn’t pull guns in the locker room…Another one of those cases of someone in a glass house throwing stones.
10:16 pm on April 21st, 2010
For all of y’all ‘mericans dissing hockey - we like it that way. Stay out of the headlines - play the game - and go home to your family. It’s called sports - not who can have the most players arrested. We’ll keep the best durn game in the world to ourselves and y’all can keep that funny version of English you speak to yourselves - and your thug athletes as well!
And by the way TX it’s a HUGELY disproportionate percent of NFL’ers in trouble with the law vs the general population - do the math (if you can)!
12:28 am on April 22nd, 2010
The NFL has nothing on the NBA! The NBA is a bunch of low, low, low lifes who don’t give a damn about their communities, their images, how many children they father then abandon, etc., etc. & Mark Cuban is the ringleader!!!!
6:57 am on April 22nd, 2010
How many of you happily would lose a leg to be Mark Cuban? Are all of you jealous? He is one owner who is not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. He matches his fines with gifts to charity. Taking pot shots at Dirk who was a victim of a criminal is unwarranted. Josh Howard is another matter and Cuban dealt with it. I admit that I do not understand why he got rid of Steve nash, but none of us know what went on behind closed doors. He does have the finest facilities in pro sports. How do you think he got all that money if he was satisfied with less than the best. Why shouldn’t he want the NBA to be better than the NFL? That does not mean it will happen. When you have goals and strive to reach them it is better than being happy with crumbs. Most of you need to get a clue.
9:17 am on April 22nd, 2010
Leave my sack out of it! :-p But seriously folks, I think you’re proving my point - sure the NHL has its own dirty laundry, but it pales in comparison to the other major sports. Part of the notoriety of the other major sports is the MTV element of scandalous behavior coupled with a sense of entitlement. Hockey on the other hand is made up of hard working Canadians, Americans, and Europeans. In the eyes of the major media: BORING. Too many white guys, and well, white guys are the ills of all humanity, so we’d rather showcase unbridled arrogance and thuglife. So Sack you are 100% correct - nobody cares about the NHL except for old school, hard working, “for the love of the game” athletes.
10:40 am on April 22nd, 2010
This is too funny. Another athlete wannabe badmouthing the NFL. Did you see his performance in the alleged “celebrity game” before the all-star game? Fans always have an excuse for their fav players & now their owners. Hey Cuban - Silence is golden!
11:15 am on April 22nd, 2010
Cuban, no one cares about basketball.You can tune in for the last minute,and 30minutes later the game is over.Boring……
12:13 pm on April 22nd, 2010
M.Cuban is a rich man but believe he is a jerk
1:20 pm on April 22nd, 2010
Cuban you idiot - I don’t see NFL players going into the stands and starting fights with the Fans like the NBA does.
The image of the NBA is now (sadly) mostly a bunch of “ghetto gansta’s”. The NFL has some drunken fools, but nothing like the worse image of the NBA
6:04 pm on April 22nd, 2010
When you have 4 times as many players in the NFL, you’re bound to get more screw ups. Nature of the beast.
1:39 pm on April 24th, 2010
just drove through utah, your state stinks. Move your basketball team back to new orleans in time for the next hurricane, and then we can do nuclear testing on your salt flats instead of in nevada. Mormons=morons.
brigham young had 17 wives and 56 children. your NBA team has six wives and 127 illegitamate childrens. Sorry malone and stockton, your careers would have been more fun in a state without an abundance of extra chromosomes
3:16 pm on April 24th, 2010
NFL owners dont dress like slobs.
You think Mark could afford some decent clothes