For two decades, Mark Cuban was the public face of the Dallas Mavericks. Lately, despite selling the team in 2023, Cuban is back in the news criticizing the new ownership group’s unconscionable trade of franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić to Los Angeles. But longtime NBA voice and Cuban pal Bill Simmons is calling B.S.
In the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the Sports Guy ripped Cuban for selling the team to clueless new owners below market value, the first dominoes that ultimately led to the Dončić deal. Simmons argued Cuban can’t pass the buck on the trade when he set it in motion with his own “brutal” decision-making, which Simmons compared to former Seattle Supersonics owner Howard Schultz.
“His decade is f***ing brutal. Not doing the (Jalen) Brunson [extension], selling the team to these schmucks who trade Luka within a year, and then not getting nearly enough for the team,” Simmons said. “Not to mention all the behind-the-scenes s*** that was going on with that organization. Rough decade for our guy, Cubes.
“And now he’s trying to distance himself desperately from the Luka trade and he’ll do any interview and talk about how he can’t believe (it), and ‘oh my god I had no idea.’ It’s like, you did sell the team to these dudes. This is your fault. Just like it was Howard Schultz’s fault when he sold the Sonics to these f***ing dudes from Oklahoma City who were clearly going to move them. Cuban sold the Mavericks to these guys and they obviously don’t know what they’re doing and they traded Luka Dončić which is the most insane thing that’s happened in the NBA this century.”
Asked by guest cohost Ryen Russillo whether he had tried to book Cuban for an interview since the sale, Simmons said no. Then, the two agreed that Cuban’s media tour has been strategically centered on casual athlete-hosted shows and political talk shows. All places where the hosts won’t grill him on his own miscues.
Not only did Cuban sell the Mavs at $4.8 billion valuation ($1.3 billion less than the Boston Celtics just sold for) despite the team owning the American Airlines Center and having a promising young core led by Dončić, he bungled his own promise to remain involved as a basketball operations executive after the sale. Cuban still owns about a quarter of the team but is not involved in decision-making.
“Nobody who was actually in basketball circles believed that’s how it was going to be played out,” Simmons said.
Fast forward to 2025, and Cuban is trying to paint himself as the good guy to Dallas’ diehard fanbase as it grieves the death of a championship-caliber team and one of the best tenures of any player in Mavericks history. Simmons put a significant portion of that blame on Cuban.
“What happened to the Mavs over the course to where they are now where their fanbase is in a full revolt to the team, I don’t know, he’s gotta get some blame for that,” Simmons said.
“Don’t sell the team to these people who obviously didn’t know what they were doing and then be like, ‘I never would have traded him.’ Like, I thought you loved the Mavericks. I thought you loved their fans. I thought you loved Luka. Like, that’s crazy. That’s crazy to say that after the fact. You have to take some blame. ‘I should have vetted these guys better, I wish I hadn’t sold the team.’ He didn’t do any of it. He’s just been like, ‘oh I never would have done it.’ Cool. You don’t have Luka Dončić anymore.”
Nobody looks good on the Dallas side in the aftermath of a trade that not only sent away a perennial MVP candidate in his prime, but also did so at below market value. But Simmons doesn’t want anyone to forget the role Cuban played, despite Cuban’s efforts to bolster his reputation.