Cuban-Jackson Feud Taken to Next Level

So, wait, who owns Phil Jackson?

Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban answered Jackson’s assertion that he intimidated referees by turning on his computer and hammering out an eight-paragraph entry on his blog titled “I Own Phil Jackson.”

Cuban scoffed at his longtime adversary and said the Laker coach “must now be considered my bucket boy.”

“For whatever reason, I have gotten to Phil so completely and thoroughly that every time he comes to Dallas he has to offer unsolicited comments about me to the media,” Cuban said. “I wonder if he dreams about me the nights he spends here in Dallas. OK, I don’t wonder. I’m curious about it.

“How can the NBA coach with so many championship rings find me so intimidating? I really don’t know.”

Jackson said after the Lakers’ 102-87 loss Tuesday to Dallas that referees were turned into “nervous Nellies” at Maverick home games because the billionaire owner regularly sends tapes of questionable calls to the league.

Jackson responded to Cuban’s blog by saying “he’s so easy to tweak” and promised to “copyright myself” so Cuban could actually own him.

Jackson also expanded his thoughts on referee intimidation.

“I think we all know what’s happened around the league since Mark has picked up that franchise,” Jackson said. “He’s done a great job of bringing attendance to that club. He’s hired former NBA referees to monitor the game tapes. He sends out a weekly report on the referees. There’s some things that Mark has done to turn it a little bit in his favor. That’s good. He’s trying to do all he can to sally up points.”

Cuban laughed off the claim in his blog.

“Of course the officials weren’t intimidated,” he said. “Maybe, instead of being so concerned with Mark Cuban, Phil should be worried about the new rule in place that causes a player to be suspended a game after he gets his 16th technical foul of the season.”

Kobe Bryant has been called for 11 technical fouls, tied for the league lead with Detroit Piston forward Rasheed Wallace.

Said Jackson: “We’re aware of it. I think that we know that he’ll curtail himself so he doesn’t get suspended.”

Cuban and Jackson have been hurling words at each other since 2000, when Cuban chided the Lakers for spending more like the Clippers during a slow off-season and accused them of pocketing their profits at the expense of the team, to which Jackson replied, “He should keep his mouth shut.”

The Lakers and Mavericks do not play again this season unless they meet in the playoffs, if such a thing is in store for the Lakers.

Jackson will not be fined by the NBA for his anti-referee comments, a league spokesman said Wednesday.

Cuban wasn’t the only one to jump at Jackson.

Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley said Jackson “has always been one of the great complainers of all time.”

“I think he does it from a coaching standpoint,” Riley told reporters in Miami. “He definitely wants to get a mind-set out there for [if] in fact he ever plays them in the playoffs. So right now, they are eight and [Dallas] is one or two or whatever, and they will probably end up playing them in the first round.”

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Bryant’s first TV commercial with Nike debuts tonight during prime-time programming. Bryant, who signed with the company in June 2003, is seen partaking in a series of drills and shooting free throws, accompanied by a “love me or hate me” narration.... Bryant gave his game shoes Wednesday to 7-year-old Rayshawn Bright, a New Orleans evacuee whom he met while playing in a Hurricane Katrina charity game in September in Houston.