NBA Fines Mavs' Cuban For Outbursts

DALLAS, June 20 -- The NBA fined Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $250,000 on Tuesday for what it called "several acts of misconduct" after Dallas lost, 101-100, in overtime in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Cuban rushed the court to grouse at official Joe DeRosa, began screaming in the direction of Commissioner David Stern and other league officials, and used profanity when addressing the media in the locker room.

"I'm okay with the fine. The league's got to do what it had to do, that's fine," Cuban said before Game 6 while working out on a step machine. "I accept the fine. It's just a business expense.''

The fine was Cuban's second of the postseason. He received a $200,000 fine last month during the Western Conference semifinals for entering the court during a playoff game in San Antonio to complain to officials and for criticizing the process in which the league selects officials on his blog.

Cuban is known to have been fined at least 10 times for almost $1.5 million since he bought the team six years ago. Cuban received a record $500,000 fine in 2002 when he said he wouldn't hire the league's head of officials to manage a Dairy Queen. Cuban was asked if the fines levied could ever push him into selling the team. "If it got to a certain point, I'll know it when I cross it. If it gets to a point where it's personal instead of business," Cuban said. "But I don't see that anywhere soon now."

Stern, in interviews with several media outlets earlier in the day, said that Cuban's antics have been a disservice to his team, drawing attention away from the players on the floor. "I'm trying to help rather than hinder because I think it's a team that's been put together for the ages," Stern said in an interview on ESPN Radio. "It's a very exciting team and it should be the focus."

When asked what the league could do to get him to change his style, Cuban said: "change things. . . . I can't be a chameleon. Just like other owners, they do what's worked for them all these years. I just try to be true to myself and what works for me."

Then, in one of the more awkward scenes of the postseason, Stern walked up to Cuban while he was addressing the media before Game 6 and shook Cuban's hand. When asked to describe the exchange with Stern, Cuban said, "One of my happiest."

Stern added in his radio interview that Mavericks Coach Avery Johnson could be fined for his criticism of the league's one-game suspension of Jerry Stackhouse for his take-down of Shaquille O'Neal. . . .

Cuban wasn't the only person fined for a post-Game 5 tirade: forward Dirk Nowitzki received a $5,000 fine on Monday for punting a basketball into the stands.