Fisher: Bilous Lies

[Speedy]

DB.com Exclusive: Cuban Fires Back

By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
A pair of national basketball writers, apparently feeding from the same trough of bile, have taken the Mavs’ start and turned it into a combination earthquake/volcano/hurricane/asteroid-hitting-Earth occurrence – and are, of course, blaming Mark Cuban for the unnatural disaster.
“I guess,’’ Cuban fires back through DallasBasketball.com, “there had to be a point when somebody had to make Peter Vescey look smart.’’
D’ALESSANDRO SUCKS…
BUT SAM SMITH SUCKS WORSE
What does Cuban think of Chicago Tribune writer Sam Smith’s attack on him and his team? “Sam Smith,’ Cuban says, ‘is nothing but a liar. Is there anyone in all of sports who is more clueless?’
What does Cuban think of Newark Star-Ledger writer Dave D’Alessandro’s similar attack? “No one says he gets paid to think things through, and he obviously doesn’t,’’ Cuban says. “But even he is a genius compared to Sam Smith.’’
The source of Cuban’s ire? A pair of Sunday notes column items in the aforementioned newspapers that reek of bitter agendas and ethical absences, scribblings that address issues great and small, all the way up to the Mavs’ apparently double-top-secret plan to replace Don Nelson with Pat Riley.
“Smith is saying I met with Pat Riley?’’ scoffs Cuban. “That never has happened. Never. The one time (Riley) called me, which was not recently, he asked if he should talk to me or to Donnie (Nelson). And I referred him to our director of basketball operations, as I do all basketball calls.’’
But not letting facts, on-the-record quotes or visits with Cuban get in his way, Smith insists Dallas is a ‘soap opera,’ has become a ‘most unfriendly’ place for players, a team without ‘spirit or drive,’ and, most maliciously, a franchise prepping to fire Nelson, all because of Cuban.
D'Alessandro, only slightly less venomous, asserts that ‘There is a large and mostly mute subculture of fans, media, and NBA owners who take great satisfaction in watching’ Cuban fail, something D’Alessandro says is happening now.
Geez. All this at 17-12? Thank God the Mavs aren’t 16-13!
None of this has much basis, you say, except for one thing: If the concept appears on the same day in newspapers a thousand miles apart. … Well, you say, doesn’t that lend it all some credibility?
Nope.
Sometimes the source must be considered. The Tribune’s Smith has a well-deserved rep for being a fantasy writer, a guy who dreams up trades (Marcus Fizer for Michael Finley?!?) based not on what teams are saying or doing, but on his personal wishes and whims (Fin is a Chicagoland product). Smith’s stories all have a Jackie Collinsesque flavor. To wit, more of his Sunday Mavs article:
Dallas soap opera. … It turns out padded slippers and fluffy towels aren't enough to overcome Mark Cuban's insincerity, disingenuousness, hypocrisy and pretension. … They are 17-12. … But the Mavs were 25-4 at this time last year. And they're 4-10 on the road, the only top Western team with a losing road record. There has been talk of Dirk Nowitzki's bothersome ankles and Michael Finley's injuries and slump. But insiders and players say the same spirit and drive are gone, emptied by the double dealing and personal aggrandizement of owner Cuban. It's one reason why All-Star guard Steve Nash talked of going to Toronto when he becomes a free agent.
Players are confused about the constant personnel changes, like the deals for Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison that have left only five players from last season's conference finals team. Even now, Cuban is talking about taking on troublesome Rasheed Wallace. Promises to popular veterans like Tim Hardaway and Nick Van Exel were broken. Players were upset with Cuban's obsessive courtship of Pat Riley last season that held up coach Don Nelson's extension. Now, insiders say, Cuban will dump Nelson the minute Riley says he'll come aboard.
“The issue isn't so much with our players as it is with our coaching staff just drilling them and drilling them and drilling them to death," Cuban said last week. "In terms of personnel, I wouldn't change it for anything." Until he does. Dallas has now become one of the most unfriendly places in the NBA for players.
Before we answer the question of how this story originated and then mushroomed into multiple papers (and will soon take on a life of its own), please allow us to dissect and reflect on Sam’s fine work, piece by piece, Sam’s comments in italics:
SAM: It turns out padded slippers and fluffy towels aren't enough to overcome Mark Cuban's insincerity, disingenuousness, hypocrisy and pretension.’’
FISH: Maybe the most hateful single sentence ever written about an owner in any sport in my 24 years in this business. You could take all the negative character traits of Dan Snyder, Donald Sterling, George Steinbrenner and Jerry Jones and combined, they wouldn’t add up to this. This sentence reveals far more about the author than the subject, I fear, and is so petty that I wonder if Sam’s anger isn’t the result of Cuban failing to pick up a restaurant tab somewhere along the line.
SAM: They are 17-12, which would be cause for celebration with the Bulls. But the Mavs were 25-4 at this time last year.
FISH: The sort of fuzzy math that, in the heads of numbskulls, goes hand-in-hand with the rapid ascent to contention. Suggesting that 17-12 is bad because it fails to match the record-setting start of a season ago is like saying that John Glenn’s life sucks because he’s never been back to the moon.
SAM: But insiders and players say the same spirit and drive are gone, emptied by the double dealing and personal aggrandizement of owner Cuban.
FISH: There is almost a half-truth here. There was a time when contention was so fresh and so new to Dallas. It was a bunch of little boys and their Christmas morning for the organization. That same exact spirit? It might be gone. But the drive being gone? And Cuban being the burglar? There is simply no evidence of that. And as proof, we offer the ‘insiders and players’ thing. I call bullspit on Sam here. I ask him to produce the identity of just one of the FOUR sources he claims to have (four, because he’s got both ‘insiders’ and ‘players’, note the S’s, referenced here). Please, Sam, persuade one of your four sources to go on the record. For the good of clearing up this unnatural disaster, I’m certain your very close ties to the Mavs organization will back you up here.
SAM:It's one reason why All-Star guard Steve Nash talked of going to Toronto when he becomes a free agent.
FISH: Completely irresponsible, and any newspaper hack knows it. I’ve been there on numerous occasions when Nash has spoken about the possibility of playing in his native Canada. The quotes all ALWAYS in response to a question, and they are always framed in an ‘of-course-I’d consider-it’ way. Nash has NEVER suggested he wants to leave Dallas, and again, it’s nothing short of unethical for Smith to say otherwise.
SAM: Players are confused about the constant personnel changes, like the deals for Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison. …
FISH: Some Mavs are confused about their roles as the club adjusts to the new guys. But no Mav is confused about the personnel changes. Raef for Antoine? What’s to be confused about? This contention, like the one about there being only five guys remaining from the WCF team, is mathematically improbable. Who's confused? Who's dissatisfied? Who's pissed? Dirk? Nash? Eddie? Shawn? Or Finley, who helped approve of the acquisition of Chicago's own Walker? That means it's not Fin. Eddie and Shawn leading a revolt? Right. Put me down for a grand on this: Not me, not Sam Smith, not over a million beers, not Nash's own girlfriend, has ever heard Dirk or Nash bad-mouth the Mavs' moves. (DB.com was at a team watering hole the night Jamison came to town. We saw happy, happy faces among the team leaders, and did not see Sam Smith in the joint.) So we're 0-for-5. Something doesn't add up here.
SAM Even now, Cuban is talking about taking on troublesome Rasheed Wallace.
FISH: If Sam is saying that Cuban has discussed in-house the possibility of acquiring Wallace, well, sure. Which NBA team hasn’t? But publicly? Nope. Not ever. Cuban has never said any such thing.
SAM: Promises to popular veterans like Tim Hardaway and Nick Van Exel were broken. Players were upset with Cuban's obsessive courtship of Pat Riley last season that held up coach Don Nelson's extension. … Now, insiders say, Cuban will dump Nelson the minute Riley says he'll come aboard.
FISH: Sam, my man, you’ve got The Sports Story Of The Year here! Nellie’s out! Cuban hires Riles! Wow! Um, why is it buried in paragraph 9,012 of your Sunday notes? And again, who is this wonderful inside-the-Mavs source who knows. … everything!? Seriously, you’re a writer. You’ve got, let’s say, four trusted sources who are telling you that Nellie is out, Riley is in, and Cuban’s got it all planned. Don’t you call Nellie for a quote? Don’t you call Riley? Don’t you call Cuban? Don’t you know that all of them are accessible enough to discuss this with you, and that if you avoid discussing their livelihoods with them, you come across as a snake, a hack, a liar?
SAM: Dallas has now become one of the most unfriendly places in the NBA for players.
FISH: Folks, I say this as somebody who lives it and breathes it, as somebody who deals with all of these people on a professional level and many of these people on a social level: You simply cannot find basketball people in Dallas who think that. You cannot.
So beyond the warped psyche of a given writer, where did all this come about?
One of my journalistic fascinations is the adult application of the old elementary-school game ‘Telephone,’ in which a story is whispered around the room to see how zanily altered it becomes. Many of us in this industry are still doing the third-grade thing, only now it’s called ‘conference calling.’ Here’s how it works: Sportswriters from various NBA cities get together electronically on Thursday to share the news from their towns. They all hear the same stories, they discuss, and they often come to the same conclusions – which is why, if you pay attention, so many major metropolitan newspapers’ Sunday NBA Notes columns, although written ‘independently,’ resemble one another.
Have you ever wondered why a note ‘originating’ in, say, The Chicago Tribune, reads almost identically to a note ‘originating’ in, say, The Newark Star-Ledger?
Now you know.
Which takes us to last week’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and a quote from Cuban regarding the Mavs’ relative struggles:
"I think, if anything, the issue isn't so much with our players as it is with our coaching staff just drilling them and drilling them and drilling them to death, so we know where we're supposed to be and what we're supposed to be doing, and do it to the level we're capable of. In terms of personnel, I wouldn't change it for anything. I know we're a better team than last year. Defensively, we've just got to learn to play like a team." National writers, and some locals, too, read into that quote some Cuban dissatisfaction with the way Nellie handles his defense. Smith took the quote and interpreted it in a way that caused him to write this: To no one's surprise, Cuban is blaming Nelson and his staff for the struggles this season.’’ Then Smith wrote that Cuban must change things because “Until he does, Dallas has now become one of the most unfriendly places in the NBA for players.’’ D’Alessandro – who at least openly I.D’ed himself as biased against Cuban from the start – took the quote and wrote, “Want to hear the punch line? Cuban blames all that on his coaching staff, which is actually less accountable for putting this group together than the owner.’’
Here we go again.
Had Dave or Sam emailed Cuban for an explanation of that “drilling them’’ quote, here’s the response they would have received: “If something is working, you work harder at it in practice. It’s a very simple concept.’’
That’s how Cuban responded to our request for a clarification. The quote wasn’t ripping anyone. It wasn’t uttered in anger. It wasn’t the first crack in an earthquake, the first ash from a volcano, the first breeze from a hurricane, the first pebble from the sky.
But it became an excuse. For NBA writers to play the Telephone Game, to unleash their bitterness, and to mislead their readers.

[dude1394]

As the internet allows all articles to be fact-checked by thousands and readers can see the "tone" and where stories emanate from, it is interesting to see the continued unreliability of the printed media.

What is scary, is how duped we have been for the last 100 years WITHOUT the internet.

The media show themselves to be the laziest and the least trustworthy of folks. Probalby only followed by the evening news.

[MightyToine]

Originally posted by: Speedy
[edit, repetition of article]

I've said it before and I'll say it again :



The day that a CHICAGO-BASED newspaper knows more about what's going on in Dallas is the day that Michael Jackson is deemed SANE. [img]i/expressions/rolleye.gif[/img]