Fish: Mavs Fans Tired Of 'I (Screwed) Up' Apologies; What's Next?

DALLAS - Mark Cuban has said it. And said it. And said it again.

He said it. I get it. Enough already.

Whether it's the long-time Dallas Mavs man discussing his 2021 hiring of GM Nico Harrison to the 2023 sale of the franchise to casino magnate Miriam Adelson or 2025' ill-fated trade of Luka Doncic to the Lakers or anything else that's gone wrong in recent years as his beloved Mavs have tumbled from the mountaintop into a pit, Cuban has not been shy about offering mea culpas.

On the Nico hiring ...

"Yeah, in hindsight now,'' Cuban has said, "it was a mistake."

On the Adelson sale ...

“I don’t regret selling, I regret who I sold to. Yeah, yeah, I made a lot of mistakes in the process and I’ll leave it at that,” the billionaire entrepreneur said on a recent podcast.

On how he lost the control of basketball ops in the sale ...

“I f—ed up. When I did the deal, the presumption was that I would still be running basketball. We tried putting it in the contract. But the NBA said, ‘The governor is the governor, and they make all final decisions.'”

On that Luka trade, of which he had no control ...

"I mistake. ... I f-ed up (by not being in position to overrule it).''

I get it. You get it. 

Enough.

Cuban has suggested that the grind of owning an NBA franchise - which meant unintentionally losing all front-office authority - was part of his decision to sell.

But I can testify to this, having known Mark since well before he became a billionaire: As emotional as this job can be, as emotional as he can be, there is no shortage of energy here, even at age 67.

And his energy and passion for the Mavs - even with the missteps - has always been a Dallas advantage.

But now? Nico is gone. Luka is gone. And Cuban's authority is faded.

Enough with the "f-up'' apologies. They are meaningless now.

Recently, new team president Masai Ujiri conducted a press conference during which he pushed for all involved - you, too - to move on from the Luka mistake.

Some in the media chided him for that. What did they want? Another "apology''? Like we haven't had enough of those?

I've been a Mavs guy for 36 years. I know how heartbroken you were/are by the Doncic trade. I but I also know how recharged you (maybe) are by the good fortune of having landed a young heir in Cooper Flagg.

And this is where Ujiri is right.

Dwelling on the universally-accepted gaffes - Nico goofed, Luka should still be here and the investment-driven Adelson family probably doesn't know whether a basketball is blown-up or stuffed - accomplishes nothing.

An assortment of "I f-ed up''? Those also accomplish nothing.

If ol' pal Cuban still has any stroke inside this building, I encourage him to use it. Not in doing podcasts ... but in doing things that push the Mavs toward a brighter future.

But this "I F-ed Up World Tour''? I'm giving no credit for that. 

The Mavs and Mark Cuban screwed up? And the sky is blue and water is wet and I really don't need to be reminded of that anymore.