The Cuban Olympics

It's easy to be really annoyed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. But if you look past his authority complex, the obnoxious sound bites, and his petty war against the NBA refs, he has some pretty good insight. He could have found a much more sensitive way to couch his argument that Kobe's rpae charge was good for NBA business, but when you get right down to it, he has a point. And that's typical Cuban: saying what everyone knows or privately thinks, but is too polite/sesnisitve/scared to say.

Anyway, his latest rant is against NBA players (his investments) playing in the Olympics. I think he has a good point. And in the process, he can tell Karl Malone where to stick his patriotism (Malone has been chiding the younger NBA stars who avoid the Olympics as being unpatriotic). Specificially:

Cuban is right, too, on the nature of the Olympics themselves. "Patriotism? The Olympics are about money first, second and last," he said this week. "They charge billions for broadcast rights, billions for sponsorship rights, and there are bribery charges in multiple countries to get access to Olympic money."

This is from San Antonio Express-News columnist Buck Harvey. Click here for the whole story.