Mark Cuban is so upset about officiating in the NBA that he’s even calling out refs not working Dallas Mavericks games these dayas.
Cuban had some harsh words for official Ken Mauer on Wednesday, calling for the league to discipline the ref that missed a blatant double-dribble in the opening possession of Tuesday night’s Brooklyn Nets/Los Angeles Clippers game. Mauer later drew the ire of Clips coach Doc Rivers in overtime, who was ejected for basically losing his mind on the officiating crew in overtime.
Cuban said during a pregame workout chat with reporters that he’s on Doc’s side on this one.
“Suspend him, demote him, make him ref a game in the D-League,” Cuban said during his pregame workout Wednesday night.
Cuban declined to mention Mauer by name, simply saying to watch the video that went viral of Nets shooting guard Bojan Bogdanovic’s blatant double dribble that went uncalled and see which referee is staring at the play.
Cuban said that kind of officiating error isn’t a judgement call, and the NBA should be more vigilant with its officials making mistakes so blatant and in close proximity to the play itself.
“That call? At the beginning of the game? Right in front of him?” Cuban said. “That wasn’t an error in judgment.
“Refs are going to miss things because there’s other things going on, but there was nothing else going on. It was the first or second play of the game, and he was standing right there.”
Cuban is obviously no stranger to criticizing officials in his time as Mavs owner. But this is one of the rare times he’s courting fines in response to something that didn’t happen to him and his team. That’s usually a pretty good sign that something truly went wrong. Cuban was asked why he was commenting on a non-Mavs ref screwup, and he responded with a pretty convincing argument.
“Because the quality of officiating matters in this game, you know?” Cuban said. “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.”
You heard him, officials: pay attention. Because even if his team isn’t involved, Cuban is watching.
