Mark Cuban has never been one to bite his tongue, and in the wake of the devastating injury to Indiana Pacers star forward Paul George on Friday night, likely ruling him out for the entire 2014-2015 season, Cuban had some words for the public on the makeup of international play, namely the IOC:
When considering FIBA/Olympic events ask who gets paid. Players=No. NBA=No FIBA/IOC=YES. Ask the people making money of us what they think
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 4, 2014
Dear nba media. Don’t ask me about the Olympics. Ask the IOC what they think. Why aren’t they talking? — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 4, 2014
Cuban was using Twitter Sunday evening to elaborate on the statements he made to ESPN’s Marc Stein earlier this weekend, where he ripped the IOC — after paying his respects to Paul George — for its structure of international play. Here’s more:
“The [International Olympic Committee] is playing the NBA. The IOC is an organization that has been rife with corruption, to the point where a member was accused of trying to fix an Olympic event in Salt Lake. The IOC [pulls in] billions of dollars. They make a killing and make Tony Soprano look like a saint. “The pros in multiple sports are smart enough to not play when they are eligible free agents. But teams take on huge financial risk so that the IOC committee members can line their pockets. “The greatest trick ever played was the IOC convincing the world that the Olympics were about patriotism and national pride instead of money. The players and owners should get together and create our own World Cup of Basketball.”
This is not the first time Cuban has spoken out on this subject before. In fact, he tweeted a link to his previous statements on the matter Saturday afternoon:
NBA and the Olympics. http://t.co/U0NLA5lGwz via @wordpressdotcom
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 2, 2014
In exchange for providing our best players to the Olympics, the value we are supposed to receive is increased visibility and demand for the NBA, its players and merchandise. The value of which can be quantified as the total revenues received annually by each team from international TV and merchandise sales.
I wont tell you what that number is,but I can tell you it wouldnt pay the salary of a player signed for the million dollar exception this year.
Cuban’s logic is hard to argue with. While NBA teams watch their players risk their bodies for free, other entities are profiting off of them. And in the case of George, all the risk lies with the player and NBA team. Even though George is injured, Team USA will still show up with plenty of star power.
Is there a perfect solution?
It’s not likely, unless the NBA is willing to go as far as to ban its players from participating in any organized event during the offseason. That means no more charity events that so many players host in their hometowns, no more LeBron camp in Vegas and Akron, no more charity tournament in Seattle that Jamal Crawford hosts every summer, no more Drew League, where Paul George was recently seen dropping 33 points.
Even then, it will be impossible to stop basketball players from, you know, playing basketball, whether it’s pickup or training. Both of which still could lead to injury.
Make no mistake, Cuban is not the only owner that feels this way, but it will take much more than just a few to start a rally for serious change.
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Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
It sounds like a great idea for the NBA to set up a rival World Cup as they reap the commercial benefits for the risk they are taking but who are they going to play.
Take Australia for example roughly half the squad plays in the NBA but the rest play Euroleague and I would think there would be more non NBA players in the tournament so how do those clubs feel about the NBA owners making money while they take the risk. At least FIBA and IOC are not for profit organisations and put the money back into the sport which is why there are so many more international players in the NBA in the first place. The Australian Institute of Sport has spent a lot money on basketball in Australia to provide players to the NBA and they don’t receive any compensation.
It’s just not true that the NBA doesn’t benefit long term, by showing off their best players.
Basketball around the world is much bigger because of the NBA, and big dollars come back to the NBA already.
It’s analogous to Microsoft allowing their software to be stolen by most of Eastern Asia.
Now they are all addicted to Microsoft software and with new copyright techniques, can force them to pay.