Mavericks embarrassing protest of loss to Warriors denied by NBA

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Dallas Mavericks on March 22nd 127-125. The Mavs, however, believed they deserved another chance to win the game, filing a petition with the league. The NBA denied that petition on Thursday, ending any pipedreams of rewriting the standings.

The Mavericks protest surrounded a play in the third quarter of the game when after a timeout Dallas’ team walked to the wrong side of the court and allowed the Warriors to score an uncontested layup. Frankly, the decision to protest felt like a bush league excuse for an egregious mistake by the Mavericks coaching staff and players.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban claimed that the referees had told his team they would have the ball coming out of the timeout. It was a strange claim coming from a man who does not spend games on the bench with his team. And, in fact, the claim was entirely made up, according to the NBA’s statement on Thursday.

“Following the game, Dallas governor Mark Cuban posted on Twitter that the officials had originally awarded possession to Dallas on the play and then during the timeout changed the call,” read the league’s press release on Thursday. “Those public statements were inaccurate, and in its written submission in support of the protest, Dallas agreed that the referees signaled possession to Golden State.”

Of course, Cuban has never been a particularly detail-oriented owner. Or at least that’s his only excuse for overseeing an organization that allowed rampant sexual harassment for multiple decades under his ownership and is currently being sued by former general manager Donnie Nelson, who claims he was fired for reporting the sexual harassment and sexual assault of his nephew by a team employee close to Cuban.