Mark Cuban: Jeremy Lin Wouldn’t Be a Big Deal in Charlotte

Mark Cuban playfully tried to throw some water on the Jeremy Lin fire that’s raging across the sports media landscape, which the Charlotte Observer (somewhat understandably) took offense to: “Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is good for the NBA because he’s so unfiltered. You need someone that unorthodox to balance a room full of Brooks Brother’s suits at the owners meetings. So I wasn’t surprised Cuban would tell ESPN of the Jeremy Lin phenomenon: ‘If it was happening in Charlotte, no one would know.’ He’s wrong. The Harvard-educated, twice-cut, Asian-American Lin would be a national story the past two weeks whether he played in Sacramento, Portland or — yes, even Charlotte. But, as Cuban was trying to say, it’s that much bigger because of the juice excelling in New York represents. ‘New York is still kind of the mecca of the media for basketball,’ Cuban added.”