Mavericks owner Mark Cuban dismisses any suggestions of team tanking this season
DALLAS -- Owner Mark Cuban defiantly disagrees with those who have declared the Dallas Mavericks' season a lost cause and have suggested that tanking is in the franchise's best interest.
"Haters gonna hate. We think that you always compete," Cuban said after finishing his pregame StairMaster routine Sunday night. "If you're competing when the league is better, like it is this year, if you don't do well, you'll be in a position to get a good pick. Which, remember, even if you have the worst record in the NBA, there's a 75 percent chance you're not going to get the top pick."
The injury-ravaged Mavericks snapped an eight-game losing streak with Sunday's 91-81 win win over the New Orleans Pelicans but still have the league's worst record (3-13). It was the team's longest losing streak during Cuban's ownership tenure, which dates to January 2000.
However, Cuban refuses to acknowledge that this is a rebuilding season for the Mavs, pointing out that Dallas is 5½ games out of the Western Conference's eighth seed with the vast majority of the schedule remaining.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18152334/dallas-mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-disagrees-saying-team-season-lost-cause