I should stipulate that he routinely demonstrates that there’s nothing he would not do or say for attention. This is why cameras spend almost as much time on him as they do on players whenever his Mavericks are playing. Frankly, only Donald Trump is a bigger attention-seeking buffoon.
(“Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Offers Self-Incriminating Defense of Racist Sterling,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 29, 2014)
I gather many of you did not fully appreciate the disdain I expressed for Cuban in this earlier commentary. Well, like Sterling exposing more of his stupefying racism every time he speaks, Cuban is exposing more of his stupefying egocentrism every time he speaks:
On Wednesday, he made a few remarks about bigotry that in light of the Donald Sterling scandal caused a bit of an uproar…
In an interview with Inc. magazine at a business conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire entrepreneur talked about his own bigotry.
‘If I see a Black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street….’
(CNN, May 22, 2014)
Of course, the killing of hoodie-wearing Trayvon Martin triggered a national discourse that many hoped would disabuse Whites of their ignorant racial presumptions. Unfortunately, it appears Cuban learned nothing from that discourse.
Not to mention that, if Cuban comes across “a Black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night” in his neighborhood, that kid would probably be one of the millionaire players on his team approaching to hug, not to attack, him.
In any event, you’d think a purportedly intelligent NBA owner like Cuban would zealously avoid reinforcing ignorant racial presumptions, especially in light of the NBA’s Sterling problem.
Except that, as my opening quote indicates, Cuban is such an attention whore that, just as he can’t bear to see his players get all the attention during NBA games, he can’t bear to see Sterling get all the attention during this NBA controversy; notwithstanding that it’s about Sterling’s own racist rantings. His need for attention is really that pathological … and pathetic.
For the record, he promptly apologized to Trayvon Martin’s parents … for what little that’s worth.
Related commentaries:
Cuban defense of Sterling…