Cuban Fined $250,000

Mark Cuban, outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was fined $250,000 by the league Tuesday for “several acts of misconduct” following his team’s Game 5 loss in the NBA Finals on Sunday in Miami.

It was the latest in a years-long tug-of-wills between NBA Commissioner David Stern and Cuban, who has become a pop-culture figure for his outspokenness and courtside antics. Cuban has amassed more than $1.6 million in fines since buying the Mavericks in January 2000.

Cuban, 47, was infuriated by several referees’ calls during Sunday’s game, a 101-100 overtime loss to the Heat. He walked onto the court, yelled at a referee and stared down and shouted at a group of league officials in the stands, including Stern. Half an hour later, he used profanity during an interview with reporters.

The fine wasn’t the largest for Cuban -- he was once hit with a $500,000 penalty for saying he wouldn’t hire the league’s head of referees to “manage a Dairy Queen.” He was fined $200,000 last month because he went onto the court after a playoff game against San Antonio and on his blog criticized the way the league selects referees for the playoffs.

Cuban didn’t seem overly vexed by the latest fine. “The league has to do what the league has to do. ... I accept. It’s just a business expense,” he said before Tuesday’s Game 6.

Earlier in the day, Cuban wrote in an e-mail: “And as always, [I] will match to charity” the fine. Have a great day, Go Mavs!!”

Stern said Cuban’s actions were problematic.

“I think his recent loss of self control is not planned and not calculated, and I think if he could, he would like to have some of it back,” Stern told a San Francisco radio station. “I really do believe it distracts the players and that can’t be good. It sets a bad tone.

The Mavericks have never won an NBA championship in a mostly mundane 26-year existence, although during Cuban’s tenure they have muscled their way into the local spotlight, historically reserved for the Dallas Cowboys.Cuban has his idiosyncrasies and his antics, but the Mavericks have made the playoffs six times since he bought them.

Cuban made his fortune in the early days of the Internet, co-founding Broadcast.com in 1995 and selling the multimedia and streaming entity to Yahoo! in July 1999 for $5.7 billion. When news of the fine broke late Tuesday morning, it was impossible to read Cuban’s opinion of it on his blog, because as a blank page informed users: “The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site’s configured capacity.”

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Fine line

Over the years, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been fined more than $1.6 million by the NBA. Some of his fines:

* June 20, 2006: Fined $250,000 for “several acts of misconduct” after NBA Finals Game 5 overtime loss to Miami, including screaming at official Joe DeRosa, toward Commissioner David Stern and league officials, and using profanity during a postgame media session.

* May 10, 2006: Fined $200,000, $100,000 for going on court to complain during second-round game loss to San Antonio; $100,000 for critical comments in a blog entry entitled, “How to improve NBA Playoff Officiating.”

* Jan. 8, 2002: Fined $500,000 for comments about officiating and director of officials Ed Rush after a 105-103 loss to San Antonio.

* April 13, 2001: Fined $100,000 and suspended one game for making a derogatory gesture during a 111-106 loss to Phoenix.

* Feb. 16, 2001: Fined $10,000 and suspended two games for running on the court to break up a fight against Cleveland.

* Jan. 11, 2001: Fined $100,000 for sitting on the baseline during game in Minnesota.

* Jan. 4, 2001: Fined $250,000 for criticizing referees for missing call in loss to Detroit. Had replay of goaltending frozen on screen, then had photographers take pictures of it.

* Nov. 22, 2000: Fined $25,000 for confronting and verbally abusing officials after a loss to Seattle. “Am I mistaken or did No. 30 [official Gary Benson] just hand them the game? Nice game, No. 30.”

* Nov. 20, 2000: Fined $15,000. Escorted from court after confrontation with official during game against Utah.

Source: Associated Press