Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been a polarizing figure ever since he first strode to his court-side seats and began abusing players, officials and coaches. But when he walked past Kenyon Martin's mother and yelled at her that her son was a "thug," he went from amusing annoyance to an ego-obsessed coward.
Cuban, who likes to think his team benefits from his fanatical response to any perceived slight to his traditionally underperforming squad, showed even more courage when he apologized to Martin and his mother in a very personal way - on his blog. Martin said he would confront Cuban about the incident, but it was quickly announced the owner would miss the game so he could receive his CLIO Award.
Stranger than Cuban's cowardliness was the response by the NBA. There was no response. Over the years, Cuban has been one of the league's best contributors to the NBA wayward mouth fund. It seems strange the league has decided to stay quiet now that the target was a player's mother and not a game official.