Cuban blasts ‘ridiculous’ officiating in Clippers-Nets game

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reacts to a call during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs in Dallas, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. AP

DALLAS, Texas—Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is again expressing frustration with NBA officials, although this time his criticism has nothing to do with his own team.

Prior to the Mavericks’ game Wednesday night against San Antonio, Cuban complained about missed traveling and double-dribble calls in the first 15 seconds of the Clippers-Nets game Tuesday night – Brooklyn’s Bojan Bogdanovic committed both uncalled violations within feet of referee Ken Mauer.

“I’m almost ready to get fined after watching that double-dribble yesterday,” said Cuban, who has been fined more than $1.5 million over the years for comments about officiating.

“That was a classic. If that was us, I probably would have protested it, even if we would have lost, because then every SportsCenter would have played it over and over and over again. That was ridiculous and hopefully they take action. … That call at the beginning of the game, right in front of him, that wasn’t an error in judgment.”

Cuban said he thinks those missed calls were a “symptom of a problem,” but would not elaborate on what he thinks the problem is.

“Refs are going to miss things, because there are other things going on,” he said. “But there was nothing else going on. It was the first or second play of the game, and he was standing right there all by himself.

“The quality of officiating matters in this game. Standings are impacted. Mistakes happen, lots of calls are hard, but not all of them. Some of them is a lack of focus and attention, and that’s the one thing you should be able to avoid at all times, particularly from a serious ref.”

Cuban would not elaborate on what he thought the problem was.

The league did not immediately respond to a request for comment.