The vast majority of NBA fans know about the burgeoning rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Clippers that we have seen over the last few years. The Clippers ended the Mavericks’ playoff hopes in the first round of the playoffs in 2020 and 2021. While the Mavs gave them a great fight, the Kawhi Leonard-led Clippers were too much for the young Mavericks.
The Clippers failed to make the post-season this year due to injury troubles, but the Mavs continued their playoff streak and made a surprising run to the Western Conference Finals. The battle between these franchises now that Dallas is a more experienced unit will be incredible to watch, but first, we may get a different kind of battle between these franchises.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban was asked about what the result of a one-on-one matchup between him and LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer would look like. Cuban then proclaimed that he would ‘torch his ass’, referring to Ballmer on the court.
These two have had a few run-ins with each other in the past and they didn’t end nicely. They had a massive clash in 2015 when DeAndre Jordan signed a contract extension with the LA Clippers after verbally agreeing to sign with the Mavericks.
The play to keep Jordan in LA was initiated by Ballmer, who managed to hold onto his center while Cuban was furious. Thankfully, the billionaires sat down and hashed it out, with Ballmer himself saying that the pair were good now. Ballmer and Cuban were also featured on the kiss cam after this feud had settled down.
If we do get an actual billionaire battle with Cuban and Ballmer going one-on-one, it is bound to generate incredible interest from the fans of the game. They can easily host a charity matchup and make a day of it, but these are incredibly busy men, so the likelihood of this one-on-one materializing is considerably low.
