The passive-aggressive genius of Mark Cuban

By Sam Rubenstein

I’ll admit I was bordering on hating on Mark Cuban for a minute. The youtube-google whining, the constant presence during the Finals, the talking down to people approach to writing. I was done reading the guy. But ever since the NBA has been trying to Cuban-proof itself, he has been taking the sneaky route in his blogging and I respect that. Check out this post about Tim Duncan. He goes on and on lavishing praise on Duncan, explaining just how great he is, and then comes the following paragraphs:

So in the interest of helping future NBA players out there, and in maybe helping other teams possibly figure out TD just a little bit, I decided to post a video of the new move that Tim added last year, and has improved on this year. I call it the Duncan Chop. Its perfectly legal, which makes it postiively brilliant.. Its something every post player should add to their game.

Simply put, as Duncan turns over his left shoulder towards the basket, he “chops” away the defenders arm. It sometimes throws the defender off balance a little. It sometimes misdirects the defenders attention. Its subtle enough to give TD an edge. All in all its a great, great move. We all should learn from it.

Genius, Mr. Cuban. GENIUS! The hidden message is that this is NOT a legal move, but Mark isn’t saying that it’s illegal. He goes in completely the opposite direction, so it’s up to the reader to figutre out the message. He’s got video of the chop so you can see for yourself. Cubes, you’re back!