Though we’ve yet to learn which ESPN.com employee is the Rosemary Woods of the following episode, there’s been considerable anxiety over Mavericks owner Mark Cuban claiming the Sports Putz’ affection for the Kiss-Cam is “because you and your boyfriend are always on it”. The Worldwide Leader chose to edit the offending remark from Bill Simmons’ podcast, an ommision The Boston Phoenix’s Carly Carioli finds troubling given the NBA’s recent efforts to “create a PSA’s begging kids not to use homophobic slurs.”
While I’ll putting aside for a moment whether or not Cuban ought to face the same punishment as a Kobe Bryant or Joakim Noah (fuck, of course he should!), Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine asks, “How big a bummer is it that this grown-ass man’s — this billionaire’s — idea of a killer joke was exactly the same as that of basically every middle-schooler in recorded history?”
Having achieved as much as Cuban has — or even just having lived 53 years on the planet — doesn’t also cause you to say to yourself, “Making fun of people by suggesting they’re gay isn’t a good thing to do; I probably shouldn’t do that”? That’s kind of depressing, right? In that moment, I was disappointed in part that Cuban said something that made him seem like a creep, but mostly because what he’d said made him seem like a boring one. A dull one.
Of Pedro Martinez, Mike Piazza once said, “It’s pretty funny. All the money in the world can’t buy class.” And that’s what I’d say to anyone who expresses even mild shock that that for all his business success, Mark Cuban might be less funny than your average Deadspin (or YouTube) commenter.