Empty the Bench

A lot of people don’t care for Mark Cuban’s antics both during Mavericks’ games and off the court, but Empty the Bench are unabashed fans simply because he truly cares about his team and the league. He’s involved, he’s passionate, he’s vocal… many people will probably disagree, but he’s good for the NBA. There, I said it.

Want another example of how involved Mr. Cuban is? Near the end of last Sunday’s contest at the Palace of Auburn Hills between his Mavericks and the Detroit Pistons, Cuban stood up and seemingly taunted the crowd, saying “Western Conference deeeeefense!” in the vein of the Pistons’ PA announcer Mason. Obviously, he caught some flack from Pistons fans, especially at the great Pistons’ site Need4Sheed.com. Well, guess what? Cuban is apparently a big ‘Sheed fan, reads the site, and took the time to address his Piston fan detractors by posting his thoughts in the comments section:

Despite all the love I’m getting on the blog comments, let me explain my “taunting.” first, let me say I’m a huge Sheed fan and he knows it. So i check out this blog now and then.

2nd. I did say “western conference defense ” to the crowd. And if you do see a video of it, you will see they were all laughing. Why? because a big chunk of the game, the guys behind me, someone said it was the Mayor, were yelling at us ” Eastern Conference Defense” when the Pistons would get a big stop.

Which we all took as fun. And when we got the stop to end the game, i said the same thing back. Thats what makes the games fun. And for those of you who think an owner should just sit in a box. Feel free to buy a team and do just that. Me, I love the NBA and the Mavs and its a whole lot more fun getting in to the games. - m

Amazing that he took the time to do this. Maybe it’s just that his ego couldn’t let him stand by and get pummeled by angry Pistons’ fans, but even so, who cares. One of the biggest selling points about attending live NBA games is the relatively close proximity that fans and players share in the arena; here’s another example of just how close fans can sometimes be to the major players of the league.