Cuban Defense Fund

Let's all help the Mavs' owner wipe out a national scourge

Hi, I'm here from the Mark Cuban Defense Fund. I'm asking for your support.

Mr. Cuban, as you might know, is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and is embroiled in a controversy with Mr. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association.

Mr. Stern has fined Mr. Cuban the astronomical sum of $500,000 for speaking out against the league's longstanding practice of allowing players to take an extra step to the basket without a dribble. Traveling. Mr. Cuban has spoken out against the fact that NBA referees allow traveling.

Many of us in the media have decried the NBA's disregard of traveling for years. "Take a bus," we have said after some of the league's legendary shots.

But Mr. Cuban is putting his big money where his big mouth is. He has fearlessly -- OK, maybe gleefully -- stepped forward to confront the problem. Wearing a clean T-shirt and a smile, he has challenged the status quo, talking into any -- and every -- microphone put in front of his face.

So let's help him out. A buck. Ten bucks. Whatever you can afford. In a time of great unemployment, of international unrest, of disease and racism and city schools that are falling apart, this courageous boy-wonder millionaire owner has found a cause. If we choose to join him, together we can wipe out a true scourge across our land.

Traveling.

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

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