Draymond Green and Mark Cuban are involved in a public feud. Most recently, Cuban told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that Draymond Green owes NBA owners an apology, saying that “because to try to create some connotation that owning equity in a company that you busted your ass for is the equivalent of ownership in terms of people, that’s just wrong.”
Cuban is referencing comments Green made about Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, who stated that the NFL can’t let “inmates run the prison” during a conversation about the league’s protests during the national anthem. Green responded to McNair’s analogy by stating “For starters, let’s stop using the word owner and maybe use the word Chairman. To be owned by someone just sets a bad precedent to start. It sets the wrong tone. It gives one the wrong mindset.”
Cuban’s request for an apology went unanswered for two weeks, but prior to Thursday night’s matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics, Green spoke to students at Harvard University. The Mark Cuban beef was a hot topic of discussion, and Green clarified his commentary on the use of the words “owner” and “ownership.”
Transcript via ESPN.com:
“Very rarely do we take the time to rethink something and say, ‘maybe that’s not the way,'” Green said. “Just because someone was taught that 100 years ago, doesn’t make that the right thing today. And so, when you look at the word ‘owner,’ it really dates back to slavery. The word ‘owner,’ ‘master’ — it dates back to slavery. … We just took the words and we continued to put it to use.”
In a more direct response to Cuban, Green said “When you look at Mark Cuban, for instance, with the whole equity thing, we all can own equity and that’s fine. But Mark Cuban will never know or understand how it feels for me, a young black African-American, to turn on the TV and see what happened in Charlottesville. He’ll never have that feeling.”
Green is right that someone like Cuban is never going to fully understand exactly where he’s coming from here, and considering the fact that Cuban thinks Greens entire argument is flawed, I wouldn’t expect a resolution between the two sides anytime soon.
(Via ESPN)
