Cuban's Response to Fortson

[jbeecham]

Cuban says rule change unnecessary
Fortson Penalty is ’Fair’

Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 1, 2003

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, in an e-mail reply to questions from The Arizona Republic, responded to Suns Chairman Jerry Colangelo, who wants a change in league policy because the penalty handed out to Danny Fortson of the Mavericks for a flagrant foul against Zarko Cabarkapa isn't substantial enough.

Fortson was suspended for three games without pay after committing the foul late in a Phoenix victory over the Mavericks. Cabarkapa suffered a fractured right wrist in the resulting fall. Colangelo has said he will consider legal action against Fortson and will ask the NBA to change its policies, making players guilty of a flagrant foul in which a player is hurt sit out as long as the injured player.

"I can appreciate and respect Jerry's passion and standing up for his player," Cuban wrote. "While I may not agree with him on this issue, I thought the penalty was fair, I truly hope he brings the same level of intensity to the many other issues the NBA faces, and that the other 28 owners follow his lead in being active on issues they believe in. It would be a welcome change."

"There are many changes that could and should be made today in the NBA that can make the game better on the court and for fans," Cuban continued. "If Jerry feels this is an important one, I hope he does call a special meeting of the Board of Governors. . . .

"Unfortunately, most issues never see the light of day and die in committees that the same six owners only are privy to, or for lack of not only owners not partaking in discussion at Board of Governors meetings, but not even showing up.

"Among the many issues that he hopefully will be just as articulate on are NBA players in the Olympics and the injuries they face, doing away with weakside defenders stepping in front of a player headed to the basket with no intention of making a basketball play, but merely hoping to get run over to get a charge (which, by the way, is a far more dangerous play than what Danny did, although currently legal, and which led for the second time in the past three years to Dirk Nowitzki getting injured in our game with the Suns), the officiating, and many, many more.

"It's unfortunate that Zarko got hurt, and I know Danny Fortson is just as sorry at what happened. But if Jerry's passion on this issue leads to a new level of activism rather than apathy, I will be there to support his efforts."

I think Cuban's response has a lot of BS in it. If Scott Williams threw Dirk Nowitzki to the floor when he was going to dunk and Dirk broke his ankle or wrist then Cuban would be going for Scott's head. He probably would've ran onto the court and tried to go after Scott (He was sitting right behind the Dallas bench so he could've). Also, since we are attacking one of his players, he tries to attack a legal rule about the weak side defenders trying to draw a charge.........that's reaching for straws because Dirk at least had control over whether he runs a guy over or not. Zarko had no control over Fortson shoving him while he was in mid-air.

 

[scotsman13]

i would be willing to bet that someone in the nba can come up with the stats on the number of charges that happen in a game and match this with the number of games that have been missed on a per case bases. now match that up with a the number of flagerant 2 since they have come in and the number of games that have been missed based on that. i will bet anyone here that the flagerant 2 has lead to a lot more missed games per case of it happening.

all this is is cuben wanting the nba to play defense the way that the mavs play it.

 

[Yuma]

This is bull@#$%! How many Level-2 Flagrant fouls are there a year? I watch a LOT of Basketball, and I never see that many in a year!! Therefore, it means to me that Fortson went well beyond the normal scope of play. Why wouldn't that be able to have seperate penalties?? It's a foul WAY above the norm. I think Cuban is missing the point, or avoiding it.

 

[Joe Mama]

I guess I interpreted that a little bit differently. I thought that Cuban was implying that the weak side defenders so easily drawing charges is not good for the game of basketball. Frankly I agree with him. It's one thing if the defender has clearly established his position, but nowadays they give someone a charge as long as the defender's body is square in front. It doesn't even matter if the offensive player has already left the ground and contact is unavoidable. But that's just me.

I'm not a big fan of Marc Cuban, but I thought this was actually a pretty classy response. Either he is full of crap, or he has a lot of respect for Jerry Colangelo.

Joe Mama

 

[Gee!]

Cuban is telling Jerry what to do? Ha fricking Ha! This guy gets all the publicity and thinks he can tell Jerry, a senior member on the board and highly respected, what to to?!?!? Someone needs to bring Cuban back to reality.

 

[schutd]

I thought his response was a nice underhanded compliment. Veiled underneath all of the respoect stuff and "Id be right there with him fighting, is a dig at the NBA's old school ownership. He's simultaneously complimenting a man, and complaining that the sameman only gets fired up for causes that directly affect him. Hes telling Jerry to look in the mirror and be a man of action rather than complacent until his team is affected.

Its a nice letter. But I felt like it was pretty transparent.

 

[JJ Slim]

I think you're right, schutd. I was both impressed and disgusted with his comments which usually mean it's all BS!

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I agree on the weakside defender arguement however. Although I defintely would call Fortson's play much more dangerous.....


I remember reading an editorial on hoopshype over the summer that had an interesting take on charging fouls. Something about the number of steps the player had taken, because after his second there is no way for him to stop...............the guy explained it about 100 times better than I just did, I will see if I can find a copy of it later on today.

 

[F-Dog]

Typical Cuban--never say anything with one word when you can use eight.


Here's a precis of Cuban's statement:

"Jerry Colangelo never supports me against the league, so why should I support him against my own player?"

Precis of the precis:

"Go #$&% yourself."

That charge-taking garbage is Cuban's way of equating Dirk's injury (on a basketball play in the course of the game) with Zarko's (on a mugging after the competitive phase of the game was finished).


I guess the real bad guy in all this is the Suns themselves, for not beating the crap out of Marcus Camby when they had a chance...