NBA
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John Moriello John Moriello Sports Editor John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR.Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls.John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com. Get to know John Moriello better 
Updated06 Mar 2020
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For aleague in which the average franchise value is $2.12 billion according to arecent report by Forbes, the people running the NBA may not have the best graspof high finance if the latest disciplinary action against an owner is anyindication.
The alternative take is that the NBA just let Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban off with a slap on the wristband because his latest Twitter rant may have been over the top but possibly justified.
Mark Cuban has been fined by the NBA again
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1231418620133171200
The NBA announced Friday that the Dallas Mavericks’ protest over what transpired late in
The short story on the play in question: Atlanta guard Trae Young drove for a layup and Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith was called for goaltending. Seemingly innocuously, the Hawks’ John Collins gathered up the deflection and made the put-back. The situation became controversial when a replay review determined that there was no goaltending but that Collins’ basket should count despite a referee’s whistle beforehand.
Cubanwent on Twitter and excoriated the officials for the way the call was handled, leadingto the fine. That brings the total for the fines that have been announcedagainst Cuban since purchasing the franchise in 2000 to at least $2.9 million.The sum includes $600,000 in 2018 for openly suggesting that the Mavericks tankthe season to move up in the NBA draft.
How can Mark Cuban’s fines be put into perspective?
It’s not news that Mark Cuban is rich. One estimate last year pegged his net worth at $3.9 billion after a series of savvy business decisions including buying internet radio company Audionet and growing it into a massive streaming service that was rebranded as Broadcast.com and sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.
In that context, the latest fine levied by the NBA qualifies asalmost meaningless to Cuban. The half-million dollars is equivalent to a fineof approximately $32 for a person with a net worth of $250,000. A career totalof around $3 million in fines for Cuban works out to less than one monthly carpayment for many of the fans attending NBA games.
However, a report after Cuban was fined $100,000 by the league in2014 – again over his criticism of officiating – indicated that the Mavericksowner has been making matching donations to charity each time he’s been dockedby the NBA.
Cuban isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers
Mark Cuban has been a longtime baseball fan and made several attempts over the years to purchase MLB teams only to be rebuffed. He spoke out last month over the way the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal was handled by saying he was grateful that he was never able to buy a team.
Arguably the most famous incident involving Cuban criticizing NBAofficiating came in 2002 when he dragged an unrelated business into thecontroversy by telling reporters that the NBA director of officials “wouldn’t be able to manage a Dairy Queen.”
Dairy Queen executives took umbrage and responded bytelling Cuban to try spending time in one of their stores to see how well themanagers perform their duties.Cubanaccepted the invitation and worked a shift at the Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas.
