Cuban Blasts Wade

[SoCalwarrior]

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki chose not to respond Friday to Dwyane Wade's criticism of his leadership skills.

But Mavericks owner Mark Cuban fired back at the Miami Heat guard on his blog on Friday.

Wade was quoted Friday: "Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments. That's because of great defense by us, but also he wasn't assertive enough as a leader's supposed to be.''

Cuban took issue with that, questioning Wade's own leadership abilities.

"I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills," Cuban replied. "You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws. What you know about Dirk's leadership skills is non-existent. You don't have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills ... well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own."

Mavericks coach Avery Johnson took a different tack, saying Nowitzki is in fact a leader and that he has a history of hitting clutch shots.

"It's a guy's opinion, man," Johnson said. "He's won. He's the champion. Everyone's trying to dethrone them. ... When you win, I guess you can say whatever you want to say."

[LastWarrior]

IMHO, Wade needs to keep his mouth shut on this one.  I think he's absolutely in the wrong by calling out Dirk.  Be the bigger man here and just let it roll off your back DW3.

[MUEng92]

This was probably the first quote I have ever read from Wade where I thought to myself, "ooh, I wished he wouldn't have said that".  Why is this coming up right now?  Does someone keep bringing up last years finals, saying the Mavs gave it away?  To be honest, I only follow the NBA when it involves DWade.  I couldn't care less about the rest of the players (except the line scores, or lack there of, of a certain two other players) or teams in the NBA.  It is just something to watch between college basketball games!

The only good thing about this issue is that Mark Cuban once again exposes himself as an complete idiot.  He sounds like a twelve year old in a cut down contest.  I am truly surprised the quotes don't start with "Oh yeah, well..."  I can picture him sitting at his laptop typing these quotes on his blog, just cracking himself up, high-fiving his buddies.  How can such an immature idiot, be in the position he is in?  How does the line go, better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  He removed all doubt many years ago.

PLEEEAAASSSSEEEE, don't let him buy the Chicago Cubs!!!!!

[SoCalwarrior]

Wade was probably just sick of hearing that Dallas lost it more than Miami won it which is ridiculous.  So he stuck up for himself, his team and the organization by calling out the whiners.  Jordan would have done the same thing (although no one would have dared question a Jordan win).  The problem is, Dirk is a likable guy.  Wade should have gone after Cuban instead.

[DJO's Pump Fake]

I can't believe the people who think wade was wrong here.

Dirk called out the heat by saying that they gave them the championship.....i think dwyane did nothing but state the obvious.  Dirk didnt lead his team to the championship and dwyane did so by deductive reasoning dwyane is a better leader and a better player. 

All wade did was be a leader by having his teams back when the 7 footer tried to pass blame for losing 4 finals games in a row.

[MUEng92]

I don't think Dwyane was necessarily wrong.  I just didn't think it really needed to be said.  Do you really think that by Dirk saying this, the rest of the NBA is going to say, oh, Miami must not be a good team, because they didn't really win the championship last year.  No, they are going to remember DW putting on one of the best NBA finals performances in the history of the NBA and they are going to think Dirk is a whiner.

I still haven't heard, when Dirk made these comments?  If he just said them this week, then I have less of a problem with DW's comments, although I still think he could have worded them better or not at all.  If DW is replying to Dirk's comments from last season, why bring them up now?

Use the approach you have used your whole career up to this point.  Let your performance on the floor (like scoring 18 pts in the 4th quarter of today's game) speak for itself.  I was glad to see his comment during the game that he doesn't want this to go on anymore.