that Mark Cuban is narrow-minded.

Narrow-minded in that all he is worried about is himself...

NBA players in the Olympics is a great advertisement for the NBA globally...

I love seeing the stars on the international stage but if I'm the one investing $100million a year I'd probably cringe too.

But you can't own someone all the time...

I'm employed full time in a senior management role, but I still do other things in my life that could lead to an injury and therefore potential causing me to miss time from work...

The argument runs both ways. Isn't the college system and other national junior programs developing the stars for the NBA?

It must be a hard life being as rich as Cuban. What a selfish bastard.

Interesting. The tenet of his quote, that the Olympics do nothing for "basketball", shows how narrow his view of basketball is. Everyone knows the NBA is not basketball, it's just a point guard giving the ball to the team superstar.

I agree with him on purely a business case

The NBA spends millions of dollars promoting its stars around the world then every 4 years hands them over to another business to make millions at no cost or charge.

As a business decision it is pretty dumb

Thats why soccer doesn't do it. They keep their stars for the billions of dollars to be made at their own world cup. An event owned and controlled by the global governing body.

Cuban also has a point about players being injured. What would 36er fans say if Maher tore up his knee in Sydney.

The Olympic ideal is directly opposed to the business model of the NBA

BJF, I agree with you; but at the same time, what alternatives do the NBA put up?

Play 3 seasons but then on an Olympic year, simply cancel the season?

Arrange a deal with the Olympic national teams from each country that there is an overhead cost for taking star players?

Unfortunately the Olympic Committee is not the one taking the stars; it's the National teams that are taking the stars.

I'd like to see Cuban contact the German National team and say "Yeah, you're paying me 10 million for taking Dirk; plus an extra X million since I've spent the money developing him for your team".

But BJF, and this goes back to your other thread, even if it was true (your premise about why FIFA have a 25 and under tourney for the Olympics) the other option does not hold true.

Cuban would say the NBA should not willingly release their players for the World champs either.

The FIFA World Champs have the same issue, highly paid club stars playing in a competition that gives the club no financial benefit.

Cuban would have more of a case if athletes in basketball were subject to transfer fees. Cuban currently gets a developed superstar for no investment in the development of that superstar....

Cuban is a douche.
He didn't make any of his players who they are, he signed them because they could already play.

The principle difference between the two sports is FIFA owns soccer where as basketball is FIBA & Basketball USA

If the world champs were run like FIFA does it Cuban would not have an issue as money would be going back to the sport and would then flow from the top down

In Basketball that does not happen as it is currently fractured ( even though i can see a day soon where this isnt the case)

His main beef is the business side of things. The NBA fights hard to get top $ for broadcast rights. Every 4 years it hands over the elite household names to another organsation that then pockets the money off of the NBA's work..

An opposition broadcaster picks up all the $, The Olympics sells sponsorship packages and seats etc. No money goes back to the NBA; the business where these stars are showcased to the world.

The Dream Team was the great case

Athletes so famous they couldn't stay in the Olympic village, yet FIBA, Basketball USA and the NBA made $0 out of this. the rights to their games made millions for the olympics organisation and its broadcast partner.

That would never happen in soccer. FIFA has a much better structure business wise currently than basketball

How much money did Noarlunga make out of Joe Ingles and Luke Schenscher $0

Again, In soccer, this doesnt happen. Money flows from the top to the bottom

without knowing too much about his past germany probably had more to do with dirk being the player he is than any team owner.

bogut has no doubt been trained on money from australian taxpayers, its great that they can give us something back in the pride and enjoyment we get when they play for our country. they generally love it too.

our nation invests much more in these athletes over the years than any team owner. these national programmes cover large amount of kids in order to unearth some gems. national programmes find the diamonds, teams just polish them. proof is that even phil jackson couldnt turn anybody into a pro basketballer.

sure , there is a risk, but unless these guys want to start programs in every community around the world they rely on national programs. they need us more than we need them to be honest.

i do agree that if the olmypics isnt giving some of the earnings back into the sports it is a bit of a rort though.

Paul
if there weren't team owners like Cuban prepared to put their hard earned on the table you would never have heard of Dirk

Risk v Reward is skewed significantly in this subject

No reward and all of the risk doesn't compute in any business

Paul, writing for FIBA, would have heard of Dirk if all he ever did was dominate Euro comps and world champs.

BJF- like your points.

Now, I use to absolutely HATE Mark Cuban to guts! but I tend to show him some respect now that he's really shown how much he love the game and has done probably more good than bad. I would urge people to give the guy more respect for what he's doing.

he seems to be a much better and generous owner than most! seems like a great guy to work for!

BJF asked "What would 36er fans say if Maher tore up his knee in Sydney?"

What, in 2 minutes of action? We'd be totally livid and be asking for Barry Barnes to play him even less minutes. I'm saying highly highly highly unlikely. Maybe on the way to the team bus but that'd be about it. ;-)

Ricky Rubio, developed his talents at home and was competitive the moment he stepped onto the court in the NBA. How much cash does the NBA then owe Spain for their contribution to the NBA?
Argentina could argue the same point.
Europe is slowly catching up and there may be a day where Euro League is the premier basketball tournament in the world.

NBA hosts the best basketball players in the world in the past, present and future....Period

money aside, try tell me somebody is going to chase NBA championship over Euro championship. Oh please

not to mention Europe has bad reputation of not paying players.

BJF, your premise about Cuban is dubious. If he doesn't believe he should give stars up for the olympics then he won't want to give them up for the World champs.

FIFA's world cup has no positive financial impact for the clubs the stars play for - be that Man U, or LA Galaxy or Benfica... - neither does it have any financial impact for the Premier League or the MLS. Cuban is a club owner in this context.

FIFA distributes some money to each of the countries who participate in the WC, but that is it, it goes to that nations Football Federation. The team's that play in World Cup qualifiers, but miss the WC, using their European stars, do not get that funding. The rest of the money FIFA raise from the World Cup goes to FIFA. The clubs begrudgingly release these players because the rules, not the business case, require this.

There is no direct cash benefit to the A-league of the Socceroos playing in the WC - FFA gets that money and I assure you, if it was invested heavily into A-league, the other stakeholders would be going ballistic.

You seem to have a rose coloured view of FIFA and it's business model. Don't confuse having a lot more revenue with being a better business. As I pointed out in the other thread, FIFA generate much more revenue than FIBA, vastly more. The product generates much more revenue than basketball everywhere, at EVERY level. in many respects, FIFA are lucky they have a stunningly ingrained and popular product to manage while FIBA have a marginalised one.

Your notion that FIFA owns soccer is also questionable. UEFA and FIFA have had significant disputes over the years and FIFA has not always won.

Mystro, you must be kidding when you say that one day Euroleague may be the #1 bball competition in the world. Europe is catching up, sure, but most of the best euro players are in the NBA, not in the Euroleague. Obviously there are exceptions but most of the best Euro guys are in the NBA.


Most basketball fans in the world follow the NBA above all, myself included. Same goes with my friends who like basketball. Most of the guys I see playing bball in the local leagues (I'm from Italy, by the way), alway talk about NBA players and imitate them during those games. You rarely hear any guys dropping some euroleague name when playing.

Whenever you check a basketball page, forum or even those countless bball fan pages on facebook, 99% of the posts are about the NBA, not Euroleague. I also know some basketball journalists and 99% of the e-mails they get from fans on their official sites are about the NBA.

I rarely see many Euroleague discussions and this comes from someone who lives in Europe (Italy). I'm sure the Euroleague is much more popular in several eastern europe countries but it will never be enough to overtake the NBA and convince fans in the U.S., Asia etc. to stop watching the NBA and starting to follow the Euroleague, especially considering that most of the top players in the world, foreign guys included, play in the NBA.

Non-NBA fans may not like my words but that's how things are.