Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Fined $600,000 for Tanking Comments

It is the largest fine he has ever received from the league.

mark cuban
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and J. Cole attend the 2018 JBL Three-Point Contest at Staples Center on February 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has received his largest fine ever from the NBA. He was fined $600,000 by the NBA for his comments on tanking during an interview on the Dr. J podcast with Hall of Famer Julius Irving.

“I’m probably not supposed to say this, but, like, I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night, and here we are, you know, we weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option,’”he said, according to Sports Illustrated. He continued, “(Commissioner Adam Silver) would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we’re not going to tank again. This was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking, and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that’s the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability.”

The Mavericks are 18-40 this season, which is the third-worst record in the NBA. The team with the worst record at the end of the season has a 25 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick at the NBA draft lottery.

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