Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has reportedly drawn the ire of the National Basketball Referees Association, which alleged he has attempted to gain an edge by directing "threats and intimidation" toward officials, The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday.
Seham added the following, per Wojnarowski: "We consider the threat to the integrity of NBA basketball presented by Mr. Cuban's misconduct to be real and growing."
Wojnarowski also shared a statement from NBA spokesman Mike Bass: "We have no specific response to Lee Seham, the lawyer who represents the referees union. This approach is just the latest in a series of steps Mr. Seham has taken in an attempt to undermine the necessary transparency we have brought to our game."
With regard to the union's allegation that Cuban has tried to extract a competitive advantage by denigrating referees, Seham provided the following examples to illustrate the referees' point, per Wojnarowski:
Cuban replied to the NBRA's assertions in an email to The Vertical:
Cuban, 58, has a history of criticizing the league's officiating. He's reportedly racked up more than $1 million in fines for taking officials to task publicly. According to ESPN.com, he was slapped with a $500,000 punishment in 2002 for saying referee Ed Rush "might have been a great ref, but I wouldn't hire him to manage a Dairy Queen" and that Rush's "interest is not in the integrity of the game or improving the officiating."
The Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star also came out in support of the NBA's Last Two Minute Reports when the league announced it was making an effort to be more transparent with its officiating.
"No one ever wants or expects perfection, but when you're not transparent, people tend to think you're hiding something," Cuban said in January 2014, according to ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon. "And I think that hurts us. That hurts just the connection we have with our fanbase. That's my opinion."
More recently, Cuban didn't shy away from putting referee Ken Mauer on blast after he missed a double-dribble call against the Brooklyn Nets' Bojan Bogdanovic during a Nov. 29 game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
"Suspend him, demote him, make him ref a game in the D-League," Cuban said, per MacMahon.
Although the missed call didn't affect his team, Cuban explained why he takes intense interest in the performance of officials across the league.
"Because the quality of officiating matters in this game, you know?" he said, per MacMahon. "Standings are impacted. Mistakes happen. Lots of calls are hard, but not all of them. Some of them are just lack of focus and attention, and that's the one thing you should be able to avoid at all times, particularly from such an experienced ref."
Cuban's Mavericks, who are in the midst of a three-game losing streak, are 11-27 on the season and occupy the Western Conference cellar entering Thursday night's game against the Phoenix Suns.
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