“Now that my ban on bloggers in the locker room has been lifted by the NBA,” writes Mavs owner Mark Cuban, “the ‘Joes’ of the blogger world will have the same access as the ‘Pros’. Those that get paid. I can’t wait to see the results.”

Suffice to say, the submissions at BlogMaverick are pretty embarrassing. Rather than leave this issue in the hands of his media relations department, the very Owner With A Boner expects the blogging rank & file to openly audition in the comments section of his own blog. And much as i would love to give Cuban some credit for getting his hands dirty over a matter issue most owners are barely conversant with….this is a total dick move on his part.

His sports blog/ Talk Soup analogy isn’t totally whack, though it’s a gross generalization.  We all know there are decent NBA-specific blogs and/or general sports blogs that would consider Mavs press credentials surplus to their requirements.  But Tim MacMahon is much closer to a traditional beat reporter — that the work appeared online rather than in print merely provided Cuban with an excuse to pull the plug.

We also should be aware there are blogs — some popular, some not — that would take these credentials pretty seriously and would probably bring far more to the table in terms of knowledge, insight and intellectual curiosity than Tim Fucking Cowlishaw.

By sanctioning these open auditions — Blogging Idol, with Mark Cuban playing the part of Simon Cowell — it might not necessarily be designed to humiliate bloggers and make a mockery of the medium.  But this is most certainly an act of ego-ism above and beyond the OWAB’s usual standard.   Though I poke fun at Cuban quite often, most of the time I figure he’s got the best interests of his team and Mavs fans in mind. This is case is a pretty big exception.