The NBA-owned Hornets acquired Carl Landry from Sacramento yesterday in exchange for SG Marcus Thornton and cash, a deadline that received fierce criticism from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (above, left). Perhaps recalling the reaction of MLB executives who watched Omar Minaya taken on Bartolo Colon’s salary in Montreal, Cuban wonders why he wasn’t consulted. “”If New Orleans is taking back $2 million and the team is losing money and I own one 29th of it, I’m going to go against the grain and say that’s just wrong,” Cuban said in comments reported by Mavs Moneyball’s Bryan Gutierrez. “There’s no way, with their payroll, having to dump salary before they were sold to us (NBA Owners); now they can take on more salary while they’re losing money. That’s just wrong every which way.”
New Orleans’ payroll did go up about $2.24 million in the process, though that difference is prorated for the remainder of the season. That increase plus the cash paid to Sacramento is what led to the Mavs owner being upset as he is a regular when it comes to paying the luxury tax. “All I know is if most of the owners in this league can’t take back salary in a deal,” Cuban said, “the Hornets shouldn’t be allowed to either…There’s so few teams in the league that can afford to do that,” said Cuban. “Yet we’re allowing a team that’s owned by the league to do that?”
“I don’t have a problem if they go dollar-for-dollar, great, more power to them,” Cuban said. “You could see if it was like a marquee guy and he’s going to bring in lots of dollars. No disrespect to Carl Landry, but I don’t see that’s the way it works. It’s just wrong. I’m one of the owners. The league is supposed to just give them a budget and it never dawned on me that the budget would say you can spend more money to bring in players.”