Mark Cuban: Warriors being the bad guy will be good for NBA

[Lord Cuban]

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Cuban believes Kevin Durant's decision to join the Golden State Warriors will benefit the NBA from a business perspective, despite commissioner Adam Silver's concerns about the forming of a superteam.

Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner who has never shied away from going against the grain, is confident that adding a former MVP to a recent championship team that already features two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will drive interest in the league.

"They become the villain," Cuban told ESPN on Wednesday, a day after Silver indicated that changes in the collective bargaining agreement are needed to prevent similar situations from developing in the future. "Just like when LeBron James went to Miami, I loved that there was a villain. They become the villain. I'm fine with that. Everybody's going to root for them to lose."

Read the full ESPN article here: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/17065541/dallas-mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-says-golden-state-warriors-becoming-villains-fans-good-nba-business

[cochiseuofm]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

[LofJ]

He says this because he had a hall of fame player ascend to greatness and win a championship for him over the Heat. If that had never happened he wouldn't feel this way. No one in the East or West (even Lebron) is beating the Warriors. What they did is terrible for the NBA and guarantees that there will be a lockout next summer.

[LameDuck]

The Warriors are villains now just like Miami was when they had their big 3. The jokes are funnier when they lose and players are elevated to heroes when they beat them.

It happened with Dirk. Let's hope the league can put up a good fight against them and beat a healthy Warriors team.

[oikosnomos]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

You know, when Lebron went to Miami, I thought to myself "I'm done with the NBA". I then proceeded to watch and root for the Cavs to win and Miami to lose.

He says this because he had a hall of fame player ascend to greatness and win a championship for him over the Heat. If that had never happened he wouldn't feel this way. No one in the East or West (even Lebron) is beating the Warriors. What they did is terrible for the NBA and guarantees that there will be a lockout next summer.

He may never say this if his team didn't win, but I think it is the clarity that winning a Championship brings. If the Cavs didn't win this past season, I would probably say "I'm done with this" but still watch and hope for them to lose. Since that monkey is off Clevelands back, the same level of disgust and hopelessness is not there.

[nbafan38]

He says this because he had a hall of fame player ascend to greatness and win a championship for him over the Heat. If that had never happened he wouldn't feel this way. No one in the East or West (even Lebron) is beating the Warriors. What they did is terrible for the NBA and guarantees that there will be a lockout next summer.

Agreed what the heat did was different as they were villians but at least beatable villians. GS was the favorite to win it al lbefore they got Durant, the league was in a reallty good place with 4 legit contenders and exicting players spreadout throughout theleague. There was no need for this.

[rasta_marley]

I think it's bad I was really looking forward to a warriors okc rematch. Honestly next year I might not bother with any games not played by blazers. Particularly in the playoffs. We all k ow who will win unless egos get in the way that is.

[oikosnomos]

I think it's bad I was really looking forward to a warriors okc rematch. Honestly next year I might not bother with any games not played by blazers. Particularly in the playoffs. We all k ow who will win unless egos get in the way that is.

Unless egos, injuries or a bunch of other things go wrong for the Warriors. A lot can happen. While the Warriors definitely have the best chance, it is far from guaranteed, so you might as well watch.

[Little Digger]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

There's something seriously wrong if they are sports fans and don't like the NBA..As a hoops junkie, I just don't understand..

Warriors play a great style..Heck didnt they even have more assists as a team than anybody has had since the early 90's? I love free flowing offensive basketball..Especially when you have great talent to go with it. (see Showtime Lakers) I hated the Lakers but absolutely loved watching them battle Larry Legend's Celtics..That's as pure as basketball gets.

[Black Jack]

This team has holes. A lot of the bellyaching is silly. we saw LeBron bully the dubs physically, Durant doesn't solve that. Plus we lost Bogut who was a bigger factor than given credit for, and bench strength.

Stop whining.

[Superbasketball]

The regular season is boring in general and the games are meaningless outside of seeding. You can see how teams matchup but it is not a given that teams cannot adjust or play better than how the RS matchup went.

You can pretty much fast forward to the playoffs and not miss much outside of how GSW plays with KD and if the Cavs made improvements.

[oikosnomos]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

There's something seriously wrong if they are sports fans and don't like the NBA..As a hoops junkie, I just don't understand..

Warriors play a great style..Heck didnt they even have more assists as a team than anybody has had since the early 90's? I love free flowing offensive basketball..Especially when you have great talent to go with it. (see Showtime Lakers) I hated the Lakers but absolutely loved watching them battle Larry Legend's Celtics..That's as pure as basketball gets.

I think it depends on why you watch. If you watch strictly to root for you team, GS can suck because they were in the way and are not even more in the way of that happening for everybody else.

If you watch just because you like basketball in all forms, GS can be fun. Most people like to think there teams have a chance however, and when a super team if formed, that hope dwindles a bit.

[sfhand]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

[Skin]

It's terrible for the NBA because parity doesn't exist. This is why the NBA will never reach NFL levels of interest in this country.

[minnytola1960]

People certainly thought the Heat would be unbeatable at the time. People were saying the exact same thing about how the Heat team would wreck the league and make it completely unwatchable for everyone but Heat fans. Turns out they were wrong and the Heat super team was actually very good for the league in terms of interest. Everyone was cheering for them to lose and hating on LeBron. Even casual fans were getting riled up. Remember all the buzz during their win streak? The Decision? Add to that, it set up a great storyline when LeBron came back to Cleveland won a championship. Does anyone really think more fans would have been interested if LeBron boringly stayed in Cleveland the whole time?

Point is, I'd agree with Cuban in that these super teams may actually be good for the league, as the Heat super team plot was.

[Texas Chuck]

The Shaq/Kobe Lakers dominated the league for half a decade. And the team I was specifically a fan of was rising up to being competitive for the first time in 15 years. And Duncan's Spurs were also in our path. It didn't remotely turn me away from basketball. It just gave us a target to chase.

Of course I'm the guy who when my pick up team gets skunked immediately yells "run it back" and when it happens again, I yell "run it back". Not everyone feels the need for an easy path to enjoy the journey.

And in the early 80's the NBA was wildly popular with the Lakers/Celtics/Sixers dominating the league with superteams.

[oikosnomos]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

I think you are kidding yourself on multiple accounts. This whole "confident yet humble" persona that the media played up, and many people such as yourself bought into, is gone. This team will be the villain. They will not be loved. Most will hate them.

Now, whether they actually are this "confident yet humble" group, we'll never truly know one way or the other. They are a collection of individuals and there are endless facets of who each of them are that we will never be privy to. All I can say is the media and narrative will be "The Warriors are the bad guys." Just own it. It's not a moral issue, it's just the narrative that will be put on them.

[jeeph]

People certainly thought the Heat would be unbeatable at the time. People were saying the exact same thing about how the Heat team would wreck the league and make it completely unwatchable for everyone but Heat fans. Turns out they were wrong and the Heat super team was actually very good for the league in terms of interest. Everyone was cheering for them to lose and hating on LeBron. Even casual fans were getting riled up. Add to that, it set up a great storyline when LeBron came back to Cleveland won a championship. Does anyone really think more fans would have been interested if LeBron boringly stayed in Cleveland the whole time?

Point is, I'd agree with Cuban in that these super teams may actually be good for the league, as the Heat super team plot was.

The real difference is those Heat teams still had to go through the Pacers, Bulls and Celtics in the east and a lot of good teams in the west that you could see beating them. The Cavs and Dubs are probably somewhere above 95% assured to be the finals match up as it looks now.

I like watching sports for the competition aspect. I didn't watch the Dream Team much because is was boring and no one had a chance of beating them. Haven't watched the All Star game, or Pro Bowl or anything of the like for about 30 years, since I was a young teen. As a Cavs fan, I won't watch them religiously, it is not really exciting watching them not try and coast through the regular season. I am more interested to see how the other teams in the east do.

So the regular season is going to be boring except for watching the up and coming teams. The playoffs are going to be boring because we already pretty much know it's not going to be 2 of the top 4 contenders, it's 2 contenders and a couple of dark horses. Injuries are the only way that can make it interesting.

[Vee-Rex]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

That team is anything but humble. And I'm not talking about their on-the-court antics at all. Strictly off-the-court.

It's funny how much the media has warped and distorted reality for a lot of people.

[tidho]

Classic WWF/WWE stuff in play.

A strong heel team is great for the NBA.
An unbeatable heel team is not.

GS already became the bad guys, that's what they were last year. They got away with breaking the rules, and they still won. People believed they were unbeatable, but the face overcame the insurmountable odds.

Now they actually are unbeatable. Its the equivalent of a tape delay PPV where everyone already knows who wins. That's not good for basketball.