Mark Cuban was involved in some drama in Denver last night. Cuban took exception to an elbow thrown by JR Smith late in the second quarter of Denver’s 99-97 win over Dallas. Cuban spoke with Smith at halftime and relayed that he would be “turning the play into the league” for possible suspension.
Smith responded by attempting to send Cuban a pair of autographed shoes after the game. Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News has the scoop, including an emailed explanation from Cuban:
Cuban made reference a brawl the Nuggets had at New York in December 2006. Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games for his role in the incident, and Smith got a 10-game penalty.
“The professional thing to do was to make sure that an altercation was avoided and that throwing elbows at another player’s head would have consequences with the league,” Cuban wrote. “You would think that the Nuggets already had a bad enough experience in this type of situation that they would be overly cautious at even the slightest red flag.”
Cuban wrote Smith made an apparent goodwill gesture after the game.
“The humorous part of the whole thing was that, after the game, J.R. sent over to our locker room a signed pair of shoes for me,” Cuban wrote. “I sent them back, saying he should sell them, if you could get anything for them, to help pay for the fine he was going to face.”
