although Mark Cuban Its not majority owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, he still has strong opinions about professional basketball players participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
In X, Cuban said he's “always been against NBA players playing in the Olympics” and linked to three blog posts he's written in past years that talk about the business of sports.
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“The Olympics is a business. First and last,” Cuban wrote. “We should set up our World Cup and treat the Olympics as football does.”
The Olympics are a business. The first and the last.
I've always been against NBA players playing in the Olympics. We should set up our own World Cup and treat the Olympics as football does. https://t.co/RrABlkNFtjhttps://t.co/vWiLnEAEh2https://t.co/Rtc5z2bKEt https://t.co/OwF4kH576K
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 27, 2024
In a 2004 blog post, Cuban wrote that by offering NBA players who are already signed to contracts in the US to the IOC, the league is essentially providing free advertising and exposure while putting players at risk of injury.
“What in the world are we doing to help our partners compete,” Written Cuban. “Why are we giving our most valuable workforce to a big business, the Olympics, so they can try to take revenue away from the NBA and our partners?”
in 2012, Cuban wrote a blog post which referred to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a “monopoly” and referred to the organization as a “dysfunctional, outdated and corrupt governing body and system.
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“I don't want to sound un-American as I have as much fun and pride as most when we get the chance to sing USA! USA! But I also know that the feeling of nationalism wouldn't change a bit if the athletes were being paid a good amount of money.” , he wrote. “In fact, what could be more American than getting paid a fair share for hard work?”
Athletes at the Games win cash prizes if they win a medal but are not paid just for their participation in the competition.
Cuban posted after rival Elon Musk pointed out that the IOC and broadcast partner NBC imposed copyright restrictions on some clips and highlights of the Olympics on X, making the content unavailable.
“It goes against the spirit of the Olympics,” he said it says in the original post, noting that the Games should be accessible to all. “Make it accessible to everyone, everywhere on all platforms.”
Cuban previously owned the NBA's Dallas Mavericks selling most of it shares to Miriam Adelson for about $3.5 billion in December 2023.