Cuban fined for ‘tanking’

DALLAS — The NBA fined outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600,000 yesterday for comments about tanking during a podcast with Hall of Famer Julius Erving.

Commissioner Adam Silver said the fine was for “public statements detrimental to the NBA.”

The league said the podcast with Erving was posted Sunday, the day the AllStar Game was played in Los Angeles.

Cuban said during the 30-minute interview that he met recently with some of his players and told them “losing is our best option.”

Cuban was trying to illustrate how he believes he is a transparent owner.

“I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night,” Cuban said. “And here we are. We weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option.’ Adam would hate to be hearing that, but at least I sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans are going to be this summer, that we’re not going to tank again.

“This is like a year and a half of tanking. That was too brutal for me.”

The Mavericks dumped veterans Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut around the trading deadline last season. After trading veteran guard Devin Harris to Denver at the deadline this season, Dallas (18-40) is tied for the fewest wins in the NBA and among seven teams with 18 or 19 victories at the All-Star break.

The fine came a day after Cuban’s franchise was accused of having a hostile workplace for women in a Sports Illustrated report that detailed allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by former team president Terdema Ussery.

Cuban said he was embarrassed by the allegations and vowed to improve the club’s work environment.