NBA commissioner David Stern has canceled games through Dec. 15. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story on the economic impact of the NBA lockout to the networks and advertisers. The amount of money lost had the 2011-12 season been canceled is astronomical. Money is the main reason why there was a lockout in the first place, but money was also the reason why the league and its players now have a tentative agreement in place that would end the labor strife.

Simply put, NBA commissioner David Stern and the Labor Relations Committee did not want to stretch the lockout beyond Christmas Day or late January. All those so-called NBA experts who were saying “the sky is falling” and “the season is lost” should have taken a closer look at this bit of information before they made their doom-and-gloom forecasts:

– The NBA lockout greatly affects Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Sports, who pay the league $930 million per season to air games. Advertisers spent $807 million on NBA games that aired on cable and network TV last season, according to Kantar Media, an ad-tracking unit of WPP PLC.

– Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the New York Knicks, in a November public filing said if canceled games aren’t rescheduled, the company’s financial results would see a “material negative effect.” The Knicks are unveiling the first phase of their $850 million renovation this year and planned to raise ticket prices 49% in the lower seating section.

Stern and the owners threatened to kill the season but, in reality, the bottom line is this: the majority of the league’s owners did not want to wipe out the entire season. The Heat’s Micky Arison didn’t want to cancel the season, the Lakers’ Jerry Buss didn’t want to cancel the season and the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban didn’t want to cancel the season.

Now, there is a small faction of hardliners, led by Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who didn’t mind missing games. But those same small-market owners also said they were holding out because they wanted more competitive balance, and they didn’t want another LeBron James-type episode where a player can hold a team hostage while he considers his free-agency options.

The players are willing to split the basketball-related income at 50-50. In return, all they want is to tweak the system to allow room for player movement. That’s all!

Union executive director Billy Hunter said weeks ago that the collective bargaining agreement was at the 2-yard line and a deal was on the table if the owners just loosened up some of their demands. Stern canceled games through Dec. 15, but purposely left the all-important Christmas Day schedule on the table. Why? Because ABC and ESPN have large stakes in this day and Stern does not want to disappoint his TV partners.

It’s all about the money. Always has, always will. There is way too much money at stake for the league to simply press the red button and nuke the entire season.

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A dejected Mark Cuban met with reporters after his Mavs were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2010 NBA playoffs and, despite another disappointing early exit, the outspoken Mavericks owner remained optimistic that his team will make another run next season with the current group he has assembled.

“Let me just say, congratulations to the Spurs. They played a great series. George Hill emerged as a star and really was a difference-maker. They deserved to win. They’re a Texas team, so I guess I’ll be rooting for them the rest of the way,” Cuban said about his division rival, who became the first seventh-seeded team to move past the opening round since the NBA adopted the seven-game format for the first round.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks exited the first round for the third time in four years since reaching the NBA Finals in 2006.

“I’m proud of our guys on the way they kept on fighting back,” Cuban said of his team, which got down 22-8 early in the first quarter but rallied. “I’m not so proud of the NBA. I’m not proud of my inability over the last 10 years to have an impact like I wanna have so I kinda feel like I owe fans an apology. That’s just the way this business goes.”

Cuban’s mood lightened up a bit when someone asked him about the performance of rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois, who showed flashes of brilliance in Game 6 as he scored 16 points in 21 minutes off the bench to provide a spark.

“Obviously he had a big impact on the game,” Cuban said of the player they call Roddy Buckets. “He showed all the things that all the ‘Free Roddy B’ people wanted to see in him, and he did it on a big stage. You look at the series George Hill had last year when he had a little bit of an impact and then this year he just killed us. So hopefully Roddy will look back at this year, where Roddy had a little bit of an impact, and next year he’ll be killing people.”

When a reporter asked Cuban how disappointed he was in losing in the first round to the Spurs again, Cuban fired back with: “It’s been a long time since we lost to the Spurs. So, you wanna ask a better question?”

In Cuban’s defense, the Mavs knocked off the Spurs in the first round last year and took them out as well in 2006, so the notion that the Spurs have the Mavs’ number is slightly off base and you can’t blame Cuban for his defensive response.

Cuban believes the Mavericks can contend for a title with Dirk Nowitzki as their franchise player and Rick Carlisle as the head coach. And a full training camp with midseason acquisitions Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood should improve the team’s on-court chemistry.

“We’ve got a great base,” Cuban said. “I mean, we’ll get a chance to work with each other. You could see some of the uneasiness because we haven’t had a full season to play together and that showed a few times. But we’ll pull all our pieces together and go at them again next year.

“Every year I tell you guys the exact same thing. We’ll be opportunistic and do our very best to put the best team on the court, and that’s never gonna change.”

Cuban also pointed out that only one team will be satisfied come June and everyone else will be searching for answers in the offseason.

“Last time I looked, five teams have won championships out of 30? Like I say every year, there’s one team that wins and 29 teams who tie for last place. You don’t change the way you approach success simply because of the questions.”

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Mark Cuban is under fire for his comments directed at Kenyon Martin's mother after Game 3.

Despondent. Inconsolable. Livid. All three describe the state of the Dallas Mavericks. But instead of pointing out their obvious flaws, they’re pointing fingers at whomever they come across – whether it’s NBA referee Mark Wunderlich or Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin and his mother.

After the 106-105 home loss in Game 3 to the Nuggets – when an apparent foul was not called in the final seconds that enabled Carmelo Anthony to hit the game-winning 3-pointer – several members of the Mavericks, including owner Mark Cuban, were irate and let their emotions get the best of them. A very angry Cuban was seen shoving cameras and shouting profanities toward the officials. But Cuban did not stop there. With some Dallas fans yelling that the Nuggets were “thugs,” Cuban said to Martin’s mother, Lydia Moore, “That includes your son.”

Martin’s agent, Brian Dyke, also told the Denver Post that Cuban told Moore, “Your son is a punk.”

All the hostility between the Mavs and Nuggets has been simmering since Martin shoved Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki to the floor in Game 1. It came to a boiling point when Wunderlich and his crew missed a reaching foul on Dallas forward Antoine Wright during the waning moments of Game 3. With six seconds left and Dallas ahead 105-103, the Mavericks decided to intentionally foul Anthony to save their season. But something went very wrong in Dallas’ grand scheme.

After Martin inbounded the ball to Anthony near the 3-point, the Nuggets’ forward fumbled the pass, which ate up a few more seconds and Wright had to hold his ground because Melo was not in a scoring position. Once Melo regained possession, he drove to his right and that’s when Wright tried to reach for the ball, hoping for a whistle. However, Wunderlich and his crew decided to let the play go on and Melo was able to gather himself, rise up behind the 3-point line and drain the shot that mostly likely killed the Mavs’ season.

The NBA office said the officials missed the call, which made Cuban and the Mavs even more annoyed.

The fact of the matter is, the Mavs are upset because they realize they are fighting a losing battle. The Nuggets are the better team, and the Mavs have too many holes to plug. Center Erick Dampier is getting worked by counterpart Nene Hilario, Anthony is bullying his way in and around the paint, and Denver’s bench mob led by Chris “Birdman” Andersen, Anthony Carter and J.R. Smith is outplaying Dallas’ bench. The Mavs just don’t have the personnel to match up with the Nuggets. Josh Howard is clearly not healthy, which puts way too much on the shoulders of Nowitzki and Jason Terry.

And Cuban and the Mavericks can cry all they want about not getting the call late in the game, but the game was not lost on that noncall. It was lost when Dallas played prevent defense and played not to lose instead of playing to win. Sure, there was clear intent on Wright’s part to foul Anthony, but the execution was very poor. Wright needed to grab Anthony with both arms and make sure he was not going to get a shot off. If you have a foul to give, which the Mavs did in that situation, Wright should have committed it when Anthony was still driving to the basket.

Before the Mavs scream bloody murder on ONE play, they should look at the whole picture. Complaining and crying about NBA officiating is a sign of a loser’s mentality and a team with several insecurities. Dallas’ current roster is just not good enough to get out of the second round.

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