Cuban blames CBA for Mavs tumble

10:12 AM ET 05.06 | Mark Cuban said he understands why, emotionally, fans are disappointed that Mavericks management didn't bring back last season's NBA championship team intact. But Cuban reiterated his season-long stance that he and vice president of operations Donnie Nelson put together the best team they could under the guidelines of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. "I've heard some of the talking headless (media), and all I can tell you is, within the collective bargaining agreement we did everything possible to put the best possible team on the court," he said. "Period. End of story. If someone wants to read it (the CBA) and tell me otherwise, go ahead. But it's like I said, I think we've got a good team. One bounce, one break and we're talking about we had one bad game like we had in Portland last year and we're still up 2-1." So he has not had any second thoughts about not offering Tyson Chandler a multi-year contract in December, or taking the same approach with departing free agents J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler. "Hell no," Cuban said. "Nope. Not even a millisecond. Because those who are talking otherwise haven't read the CBA and are just talking out their (expletive) without any foundation. But that's what you guys do. "Given what happened, I think we put together a damn good team. If we had one break, one call, one bounce, we're having a completely different conversation and you're thinking how smart we are instead of how stupid we are." Clearly, Cuban believes the biggest culprit in the Mavericks' bumpy defense of the NBA title is the CBA.

Dallas Morning News