Mark Cuban is regularly in the news and he is more prominent on a national scale than a typical NBA owner would be. Part of that, of course, is that Cuban appears on a national television program but it is also his electric personality and the fact that, well, he isn’t even shying away from the possibility (albeit a slight one) that a presidential run could be in his future.
However, the Dallas Mavericks owner did a thing this week that has universal approval and that was allowing veteran guard J.J. Barea to use the team place for hurricane relief. Tim MacMahon of ESPN brings word that Barea, who is the only native of Puerto Rico playing in the NBA, was lent the plane by Cuban in order to transport a bevy of supplies (including food and water) to his home country. Beyond that, Barea was permitted to miss the first day of Mavs training camp and Rick Carlisle certainly seems to understand.
“That’s a situation that he’s got to take care of. Mark gave him our team plane. They loaded up a bunch of stuff, supplies, etc., to take over to Puerto Rico, and they’re going to turn around and come back. He’s going to take his mom and grandmother back with him, and my understanding is his dad is going to stay over there and slug it out with all of the recovery efforts.”
Cuban told ESPN that he “was really proud of J.J. and how quickly he got involved and how hard he worked to make all of this happen” but it certainly speaks to a positive side of the sometimes controversial owner that he would be willing to do this. In addition, Barea should absolutely be commended for actions and the ESPN report indicates that J.J. and his wife, Viviana Ortiz, have raised more than $140,000 that is desperately needed to aid in the recovery of Puerto Rico right now.
In retrospect, it may seem like an easy decision to intervene the way that Cuban and Barea are here but not every NBA owner would jump on board in this fashion.
