Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 11:45 am  |  51 responses

Muggsy Bogues: Thanks, Mark Cuban

“I was never able to thank Cuban in person…but I do thank him.”

by Tzvi Twersky | @ttwersky

Deserved or not, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has acquired somewhat of a lousy rap. Over the course of his 11-year ownership of the Mavericks, he’s been accused of a lack of common sense, of insider trading and has lost over $1 million in fines  for actions or comments deemed inappropriate by the NBA.

But for every negative associated with Cuban’s name, there is an equal or greater positive. Just ask former NBA player Muggsy Bogues.

“I’ve never met Mr. Mark Cuban, but I tell people that I thank him more than life itself,” Bogues, 46, said recently over the phone from his home in Charlotte. “I had three years left on my contract when my mom passed away, and I decided it was time to move on [from basketball]. I walked away from the game with three years left on my contract. He (Cuban) could have easily just have bought me out of my contract, but he went on and honored it and paid the three years out and never looked back.”

Acquired by the Dallas Mavericks via a three-way trade in the summer of 2001, Bogues—bereaved over his mother’s passing—never suited up in a single game for the Mavericks. Still, Cuban agreed to pay the 5-3 guard the complete balance of his contract. That amount came out to $3, 617, 400 over the course of the three years years remaining.

To this day, Bogues finds himself rooting for Cuban and the Mavericks—not just because of the money, but because of the owner’s kindness.

“I was never able to thank Cuban in person for that, but I do thank him,” said Bogues.

“And I’m happy the Dallas Mavericks won the Championship. That’s a great organization.”

Additional reporting by Dan Shapiro

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  • Greg Tanner Posted: Sep.16 at 11:53 am
    Cuban is a G.

  • MtotheS Posted: Sep.16 at 11:57 am
    The Cuban Links.

  • Will Lee Posted: Sep.16 at 12:10 pm
    i would do the same if i am rich

  • LA Huey Posted: Sep.16 at 12:11 pm
    Always liked Cuban.

  • MLK4Life Posted: Sep.16 at 12:11 pm
    I’d play for Mark Cuban any day.

  • Chris Posted: Sep.16 at 12:24 pm
    Nothing is ever said either about the fact that he still employs Donnie Nelson even though he went through a bitter and LEGAL situation with his father Don Nelson. It’s pretty telling that Donnie still wanted to be around and Cuban actually allowed it. He’s a classy (crazy) dude.

  • Max Posted: Sep.16 at 12:29 pm
    I’d play for any owner in the NBA..

  • Yann Blavec Posted: Sep.16 at 12:37 pm
    A 5-3 guy playing in the best basket-ball league in the world for 13 years. The USA are the country where anything can happen;

  • Shadojoker Posted: Sep.16 at 12:42 pm
    Hats off to Mark Cuban!! A true class act!

  • Caboose Posted: Sep.16 at 12:53 pm
    Sure he acts like a crazy college kid sometimes but there’s nothing wrong with that. Cubes just seems like a fun guy (anybody ever see him on Shark Tank?) and it really is amazing to see such generosity. Class act, even with some of his antics.

  • riggs Posted: Sep.16 at 12:57 pm
    the shark tank episodes with cuban are the only ones i watch, everyone else (especially the former owner of FUBU) is a douche.

  • Allenp Posted: Sep.16 at 12:59 pm
    Damn, that is classy.
    All people have good and bad. Learn about both and discover the true person.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Sep.16 at 1:17 pm
    Strange. I just seen Muggsy on Space Jam last night.

  • ALEX80 Posted: Sep.16 at 1:22 pm
    I pray for Cuban’s money.

  • andy Posted: Sep.16 at 1:38 pm
    @Enigmatic, strange, I saw Muggsy in an old episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm yesterday! Spooky.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Sep.16 at 1:51 pm
    Ha ha it’s like Muggsy Appreciation Week.

  • nbk Posted: Sep.16 at 1:54 pm
    Andy I watched that episode 3 days ago! lol

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Sep.16 at 2:03 pm
    Eddy Curry should thank James Dolan. rofl

  • doyouwantmore Posted: Sep.16 at 2:19 pm
    Cuban does seem to act a little bit more like a human being than most owners, but he’s still a geek for telling himself that he’s on the team, or that the players relate to him as one of them.

  • bike Posted: Sep.16 at 2:52 pm
    A great gesture on the part of a good guy. And yet, he gets bashed for overpaying players in this labor dispute.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Sep.16 at 3:19 pm
    Jerry Reinsdorf did the same thing with Jay Williams. But he’s not a “young, hip” owner like Cuban so he gets no love.

  • Chukaz Posted: Sep.16 at 3:21 pm
    They should rename the Dallas Mavericks the Dallas Mark-Cubans so that Mark Cuban can be the team’s mascot instead of a horse… i don’t see why cuban is fined all this money for no reason. As an NBA owner, he’s David Stern’s employer. David Stern’s like the league’s manager. If you owned a store, would you allow the store manager to fine you? I don’t think so. As an employee, do you think you could get away with bossing your boss around? F*cking NBA’s all backwards

  • M Cho Posted: Sep.16 at 3:39 pm
    Nice of Cuban to do this. But Muggsy, dude, if a guy does something that means that much to you, shouldn’t you at least try to meet him face to face to thank him in person?

  • M Cho Posted: Sep.16 at 3:40 pm
    @Enigmatic: yeah, agreed – the Bulls organization was really classy to pay Jay Williams. Especially since Williams had pretty much voided the contract by getting on that motorcycle. That trumps what Cuban did for Muggsy, imo.

  • LA Huey Posted: Sep.16 at 3:43 pm
    @Enigmatic. Yeah, but we all remember how much he paid Pippen and how he allowed Krause to build a rift leading to the end of the Bulls dynasty. Granted, Pippen signed a contract and it aint like underperforming players ask to restructure their contract accordningly. Just saying.
    And I am no Bulls fan. Though I disliked the Bulls, I hated that the Bulls reign ended prematurely.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Sep.16 at 3:47 pm
    But we also all remember Jordan making $30 million in one season, right?

  • Allenp Posted: Sep.16 at 4:08 pm
    I think the Jay Williams thing was cool, like what Robert Kraft did for that running back from Georgia.
    But, Cuban’s was cooler, to me at least, because it was about emotional pain. I think that being a nice guy and physically unable to perform is one thing. With Jay and with the running back, the owner liked the players, and with Kraft, the running back was competing at an NFL sanctioned event when he was hurt.
    Cuban didn’t even know Mugsy. And while losing your mother is devastating, many people would be likely to under value that emotional pain, I think. that makes Cuban’s act more impressive to me.

  • LA Huey Posted: Sep.16 at 4:31 pm
    @Enigmatic. Haha. Yeah, who doesn’t? But back to your original point. Reinsdorf aint young. And he doesn’t dress like a fan to his teams games. That would be the simple answer to why he isn’t considered “young and hip”

  • shaolin23 Posted: Sep.16 at 4:49 pm
    ithought Cuban was just crasy but thats real cool what he did.

  • AMPduppp Posted: Sep.16 at 5:54 pm
    I’ve always loved Cuban. He reminds me of Dennis Rodman in the fact that he’s loud and so many people can’t stand him, but deep down he’s a good guy. Big props to him for this

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.16 at 5:59 pm
    @ andy: Are you looking at my dick?!

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.16 at 5:59 pm
    That should be with quotation marks btw.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.16 at 6:12 pm
    Yeah that was kinda awkward but Curb fans will get it.

  • nbk Posted: Sep.16 at 6:13 pm
    lol Teddy – “Do you respect wood?”

  • AC Posted: Sep.16 at 6:20 pm
    Great guy! He love B-ball and he treat his player good!

  • Dacre Posted: Sep.16 at 6:59 pm
    I’m getting shirty for 2k12.

  • Dacre Posted: Sep.16 at 7:02 pm
    If JJ Barea goes elsewhere as a free agent Mark could be making that call to Muggsy…. “Hey Tyronne, about those 3 years you owe me….”

  • Ronald Posted: Sep.16 at 7:55 pm
    This is more impressive than the Jay Will thing because you didn’t hear about it until now. Most owners/organizations would parade their charity in your face.

  • Muggsy Bogues has $3.6 million thank yous for Mark Cuban | ProBasketballTalk Posted: Sep.16 at 7:59 pm
    [...] Bogues spoke with SLAM and recounted what happened. “I’ve never met Mr. Mark Cuban, but I tell people that I thank him more than life itself,” Bogues, 46, said recently over the phone from his home in Charlotte. “I had three years left on my contract when my mom passed away, and I decided it was time to move on [from basketball]. I walked away from the game with three years left on my contract. He (Cuban) could have easily just have bought me out of my contract, but he went on and honored it and paid the three years out and never looked back.” [...]

  • Enigmatic Posted: Sep.16 at 8:05 pm
    It wasn’t Reinsdorf who spoke up about it, though.
    It was Williams and his agent.

  • Mark Cuban Honored Muggsy Bogues' Contract After Retirement | Larry Brown Sports Posted: Sep.16 at 9:56 pm
    [...] never met Mr. Mark Cuban, but I tell people that I thank him more than life itself,” Bogues recently told Slam. “I had three years left on my contract when my mom passed away, and I decided it was time to [...]

  • D. Posted: Sep.16 at 11:03 pm
    Yeah, so I’m going to come out and say it: Cuban really is quite bad with his money.

  • nbk Posted: Sep.16 at 11:28 pm
    Your right what an idiot. How could he turn himself into a billionaire is one of the great mysteries of this world. smh.

  • Muggsy Bogues Reveals The Substantial Gift He Received From Mark Cuban | WoodlawnPost Posted: Sep.17 at 12:16 am
    [...] Well, thanks to a recent interview with SLAM, the littlest man in NBA history appears to be Mark Cuban’s biggest fan. [...]

  • Justin Posted: Sep.17 at 3:28 am
    @Enigmatic…yes, but we all remember when Jordan was making $3.9M per season and being around the 30th highest paid player in the league right? We also remember that nobody came to watch Bulls games before MJ got there, and perhaps (as Reinsdorf has said) that paying him that much over his final 3 years was a thank you?

  • nbk Posted: Sep.17 at 4:18 am
    That wasnt his point.

  • dan Posted: Sep.17 at 1:38 pm
    just imagining Cuban reading this and thinking ‘did I?’ DOH!

  • Joskitz Posted: Sep.17 at 3:53 pm
    The least Muggy could have done was pick up the phone and call.

  • Ugh Posted: Sep.18 at 9:35 am
    @nbk: He is, though. He managed to become a billionaire through some ,uh, lucky trading, but his actual financial decision making is pretty shoddy.

  • Clayton Posted: Sep.18 at 10:02 pm
    Wasn’t able to thank him in person? Are you telling me some ‘gave’ him 3.6million clams and you couldn’t find the time to thank him in person. I’m not sure where he was living at the time but I would have walked there to thank him.

  • Jaamal Braithwaite Posted: Sep.22 at 8:44 am
    Wow, this is unheard of. There has been bigger stars (no offense to Muggsy) who weren’t treated with as much respect as him on their way out and after of their careers.

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