Even a billionaire entrepreneur has troubles, as Mark Cuban is proving. Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks are a team built for the playoffs. The trade during the regular season for Jason Kidd was intended as insurance to advance well into the playoffs. Mark Cuban undertook an expensive Kidd contract to provide the experience and leadership at the point guard position to prevent any repeats of recent playoff disasters.

Nevertheless, Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks have a pending disaster on their hands.

The Mavs are being shredded by Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Game Two of the playoff series was 127 - 103 for the Hornets. The disparity in play was worse than the score indicates. And the Dallas Mavs are being shredded, off the basketball court, by the sports media. The following is a sample from a Texas newspaper, the Star-Telegram:

“…By Ground Hog Day of this year, however, it was obvious the Mavs no longer cast that same shadow on an NBA Western Conference that suddenly roared right past them. The carry-over from early February is now even more dramatic after what was witnessed here in two playoff contests

What’s scary is the Hornets are the least seasoned of this West playoff pack. What’s obvious, particularly Tuesday night, is it doesn’t matter.”

link: Randy Galloway: These gutless losers almost deserve pity

As is evident by the Galloway article, the criticism has been harsh. The Dallas Mavericks need to win four of the next five games in order to advance. Those are not numbers that thrill Mark Cuban. He knows what a monumental task that will be. Remember, though, it was only days ago that Dirk Nowitzki was glad to have the New Orleans Hornets, in the first round of the playoffs, instead of the L. A. Lakers. The Hornets may have changed Dirk Nowitzki’s assessment.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: nba, mark cuban, dallas mavericks, chris paul, new orleans hornets, l.a. lakers, jason kidd