According to Matt Moore of CBS Sports, Mark Cuban has been very upset with the lack of the calls that Dallas Mavericks guard Monta Ellis is receiving.
Now, let’s get this straight, Mark Cuban complaining about NBA officiating is nothing new. You can see him upset with tons of calls during the game, and on twitter complaining about calls after the game. This time, however, he is irate over the no-calls that are are working against his team.
After the Mavericks’ loss on Friday against the Spurs, Cuban sounded off against the officials. Via ESPN:
Cuban, who has calmly mentioned in the past that Ellis doesn’t get as many calls as he should, said he was set off after seeing Spurs power forward Tim Duncan smack Ellis in the face without a foul being called.
“He got hit in the face, Duncan got his body lower, hand was down like this in the replay, and then [referee] Monty McCutchen says he was straight up and down,” Cuban said. “Say you missed it, cool. Say you’ll look at it, cool. Say you weren’t sure, cool. Say it wasn’t your call, cool. But when the second defender doesn’t jump, it can’t be up and down. When a drive starts at the top of the key and you go straight down, it’s not lower box, it can’t be up and down unless you jump.
“That’s crazy, and it happens three times a game for Monta, every game. It’s ridiculous.”
Cuban said the Mavs have sent “a long list” of non-calls they believed should have been fouls on Ellis drives to the league office this season. Cuban isn’t satisfied with the “ridiculous feedback” the Mavs have received from the NBA, so he decided to take an aggressive public stance on the issue, asking for help from the fans.
“I’m not allowed to say how many and what, but we literally have a play list of all the calls of Monta getting smacked and no call,” Cuban said. “It’s crazy. It’s crazy. It’s always the same: ‘Oh, it’s incidental,’ or ‘It’s not this, it’s not that.’ We tried. We tried to play the game.
“Maybe it will all change next year. I’m not even expecting the league to change anything. I’m hoping fans, every time that happens, fans post a video of it so everybody can see it.”
Mark Cuban has said that they have been sending in film of Monta Ellis getting beat up to the NBA. Apparently, the response they’ve been getting isn’t one of their liking. Cuban will likely be walking away from all of this with a fine due to his comments on twitter and in the interview, but if the calls start to change for Ellis then that will be an easy risk that Cuban will take.
