"Scoreboard," the defendant said.
When Ross Perot Jr. sold the team to Mark Cuban a decade ago, he kept 5 percent of the team. Two years ago he filed a number of lawsuits, accusing Cuban of mismanaging the team, even doing illegal things with the money. (Ironically, one of the complaints was that Cuban was putting too much cash back into the team, instead of giving it to Perot and other partners.)
This morning, Cuban's lawyers filed a brief to their motion to dismiss the suits:
On June 12, 2011, the World Champion Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat to claim the franchise's first NBA championship. A true and correct photo of one of the many victory celebrations is incorporated herein:
[GIANT PHOTO OF MAVERICKS CELEBRATING WITH TROPHY]
Under Hillwood's ownership, the team was deemed the "worst franchise" in all of professional sports. Under Cuban's stewardship the Mavericks have become one of the league's most successful teams and are now NBA champions. Accordingly, there can be no genuine question that Hillwood's claims of mismanagement lack merit and Hillwood's claims should be disposed of on summary judgment.
Basically, "I can't be mismanaging the team if we're the best." It's clear that Mark Cuban, who just completed the best mid-life crisis ever, is just trying to make sure his championship goes down in the legal record. On the other hand, he's kind of right.
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Here's the full brief, via the Dallas Observer: