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Truth be told Mavs' owner-to-be wants to set the record straight
Posted: Thursday March 02, 2000 07:22 PM
Mark Cuban, the new owner-in-waiting of the Dallas Mavericks, is eager to set the record straight on Dennis Rodman. And, no, he isn't renting Rodman a Lamborghini for $15 a day. "It's all completely bogus," Cuban told me. "Dennis has to show up and practice just like anybody else. The only concession we made is that when the team is actually on the floor practicing, he'd be allowed to ride the bicycle. All the other stuff that's being said is nonsense." Cuban was in New York earlier this week to be interviewed by the league's Board of Governors, who still haven't voted on whether to approve his bid for the Mavs' franchise. Like Cuban, most of the nine-member committee has invested millions. "And I don't blame them for wanting to protect their investment from such foolishness," Cuban told me. "Hopefully, the truth will prevail." Ike's not happy with MikeWashington center Ike Austin had expected to be traded, craved a departure from the nations' capital, and was visibly upset when the trade deadline expired and he was still a Wizard. "I really thought I'd be somewhere else by now," Austin told me. But Austin still could be gone once this summer rolls around. "Give it time," Michael Jordan has told confidants. "We're working on it." Iverson, the victim, makes annual appearanceRarely has a season gone by without 76ers guard Allen Iverson playing the role of victim, blaming the media for all his travails. After going through a horrible five-game shooting slump, in which he went 40-for-121 from the field, he came back with a spectacular 15-for-18 showing against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. Then, predictably, he lashed out. "None of y'all can do what I do," he said to the media contingent. "Anybody can write negative (bleep). That's easy. Give me a pen and I can do it, too. But none of y'all can do what I do." Iverson does deserve some credit. In the process of blasting everyone, he also admitted that he has been playing horribly, saying, "I can't score a lot every night. I'm only human. A baseball player goes through a hitting slump, I went through a shooting slump, that's all." The first three seasons of his career, he would never have admitted as much. Stephen A. Smith covers the NBA for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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