The backstory of Mark Cuban's wealth involves his love for NCAA hoops, which puts a notable twist on the fact that the Dallas Mavericks owner now says that college basketball is 'uglier than ugly' and that it hurts the NBA because its players don't know 'how to play a full game of basketball.'
"If they want to keep kids in school and keep them from being pro players, they're doing it the exact right way by having the 35-second shot clock and having the game look and officiated the way it is," Cuban said Wednesday night before the Mavs' win over visiting Phoenix. "Just because kids don't know how to play a full game of basketball.''
In 1995, Cuban (and business partner Todd Wagner) In 1995, founded Audionet, a company born of Cuban's desire to listen to Indiana University basketball after moving from Bloomington to Dallas. The idea of "online radio'' allowed him to start a company called Audionet (which became Broadcast.com) -- which, in 1999, they sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock. So it's fair to assume Cuban's criticism of the sport comes from a sincere desire to see it healthy.
"You've got three kids passing on the perimeter,'' Cuban said. "With 10 seconds on the shot clock, they try to make something happen and two other kids stand around. They don't look for anything and then run back on defense, so there's no transition game because two out of five or three out of five or in some cases four out of five kids aren't involved in the play.
"It's uglier than ugly."
Cuban noted that when the NBA has run into those sort of dips, it "changed things,'' adding that new commissioner Adam Silver is proactive in attempting to do just that now with the consideration of a more balanced schedule.
Cuban was himself instrumental in motivating change in the way the NBA officials are managed and judged, behind-the-scenes work he did while at the same time very publicly insisting, in the 2001-02 season that then-NBA officiating boss Ed T. Rush "couldn't manage a Dairy Queen."
In an echo of that infamous remark, and in the wake of a controversial call to end this week's Duke-over-Wisconsin national championship game, Cuban added a college basketball criticism of its referees, saying their work is "crummy'' and that they "couldn't manage a White Castle."
"There are so many things'' about the college game, Cuban said, "that are ridiculous."
MORE FROM FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST:
- Ranking NFL quarterback salaries
- Oldest player on every NBA team
- College football's highest paid coaches in 2014
- Highest paid player on every MLB roster
