Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban yesterday "reiterated his stance that he will keep two ESPN reporters away from his team's home games, saying it's his choice to credential them, not the NBA's," according to the AP. Cuban: "My call." Asked if the league could intervene, he added: "They could probably try, but I don't know why they would." The barred reporters, ESPN's Marc Stein and Tim MacMahon, issued a statement yesterday through the net "thanking colleagues and fans for their support." They said, "The circumstances that led the Mavericks to deny us entry to their home games remain very difficult to understand, given that the NBA has always been one of the most media-friendly leagues in the world. Yet we're hopeful that a resolution is near" (AP, 11/9).
CHANGING WINDS: SB NATION's Tim Cato cited sources as saying that the "clash was also at least partially influenced by MacMahon's changing role at ESPN." Last season, MacMahon "exclusively covered the Mavericks, attending every home game and about half of the team's road matchups." His role this season has "expanded to coverage of other teams while still attending a similar number of Mavericks games and producing a comparable amount of game stories." Under MacMahon's new role this season, he will also provide coverage for the Jazz, Grizzlies and T'Wolves. It is "understandable if MacMahon's Mavericks coverage may have suffered slightly from the increased workload, even if he attended the same number of games." A source said that MacMahon is "still allowed" at Mavericks' practices and "can travel on the road." Cuban in an email wrote, "If I did nothing and the trend towards more and more games being covered by wire reporters continues, then it could get to the point where it was too late. I felt like if I didn't do it now, I wouldn't have a chance to stop or slow what I felt was a negative trend for the Mavs and NBA" (SBNATION.com, 11/8).
WHAT'S GOING ON? In DC, Matt Bonesteel wrote under the header, "Mark Cuban's ESPN Ban Doesn't Make Any Sense." Taken "out of context, the reasons for Cuban's protest are admirable: No journalist wants to be replaced by a computer." But Cuban's "application of this protest to ESPN's coverage of his team strains logic and suggests something else is at play here" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 11/8).
