Mark Cuban has continued holding onto the belief that NBA players shouldn’t represent Team USA at the Olympics, as they’re multi-million dollar assets that the NBA is subsidizing for the United States Olympic Commission.
He shared links to three blog posts he had written in 2004, 2009, and 2012 respectively airing his ardent opposition to NBA players at the Olympics on his social media.
“I’ve always been against NBA players playing in the Olympics. We should put on our own World Cup and treat the Olympics like Soccer does.”
The Olympics are a business. First and last.
I’ve always been against NBA players playing in the Olympics. We should put on our own World Cup and treat the Olympics like Soccer does. https://t.co/RrABlkNFtjhttps://t.co/vWiLnEAEh2https://t.co/Rtc5z2bKEt https://t.co/OwF4kH576K
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 27, 2024
In 2004, Cuban’s article lays out various points as to why the NBA is putting itself in a financially disadvantageous position by allowing top players to represent Team USA. He says they’re providing players who team owners pay for, hurting advertising dollars for the teams and the league, putting players at injury risk, and in turn hurting fans who pay to watch their favorite teams and players in NBA arenas.
In 2009, Cuban suggested that basketball at the Olympics should take on the same form as soccer in the Olympics and be a U-21 tournament to not give the IOC billions of dollars in revenue with their absolute best players.
“It’s time we follow the lead of these European Soccer leaders and ask our players to only play for the profit-seeking enterprise that pays them and limit the Olympics to players under 21. If the Olympics can make billions using our under-21 players, more power to them.”
In 2012, Cuban launched a more scathing attack on the financials of the IOC, attacking the organization for not paying its players and expressing his support for Dwyane Wade, who was being criticized at the time for saying NBA players should be paid for representing Team USA at the Olympics.
Cuban is not a fan of the NBA essentially lending the IOC its biggest players in the competition. However, everyone knows that the Olympics are considered the ultimate international honor in basketball, even over the FIBA World Cup. Even if the NBA didn’t want its players to play, the players would want to represent their country and get a Gold medal.
Cuban must be upset that the NBA has sent arguably its most commercially lucrative squad in history to the 2024 Paris Olympics, with over 60 NBA players in competition with Team USA alone having over $500 million in active NBA contracts. In addition, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant are arguably the three most marketable stars the sport has seen in the last 25 years.
Cuban was quiet about the Olympics in 2020, probably because Luka Doncic was trying to pull off one of the greatest stories in international sports history by leading basketball minnows Slovenia to a medal at the Olympics. While they finished in fourth place, Cuban clearly wouldn’t have objected to Doncic participating at the Olympics in 2024 if Slovenia had qualified.
Only two Mavericks are in action at Paris 2024, with Dante Exum representing Australia and Dwight Powell serving as the starting center for medal hopefuls Canada. With Cuban as a minority owner of the franchise now, it’s unlikely he will feel as strongly against the Olympics going forward given the financial implications aren’t as magnified as they would have been in 2004, 2008, or 2012.
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