WATERCOOLER CHAT: CUBAN’S CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS, CAVS INTERVIEWING, LANDON DONOVAN OFF TEAM
BASKETBALL
In sports, the major controversial story of the day surrounded remarks made by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. In an interview with Inc. magazine, Cuban said, to paraphrase, that everyone has their own prejudices, including him, but that we must learn to deal with them and improve them. He said, as an example, that if he saw a black kid in a hoodie, he would cross to the other side of the street. But if he saw a white, bald guy with tattoos all over his scalp, Cuban would walk back across the street again.Â
The sports world was up in arms over this, with many saying that this is extremely offensive to the Trayvon Martin situation. Cuban came out and apologized to the Martin family, but said he did stand by his words and the message of his interview. He said, via Twitter, “helping people realize that while we all may have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it”. This story will probably cool quite quickly.Â
Finally, in some NBA coaching news, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who just got another #1 pick in the draft, are still looking for a leader to guide this young team.  On Thursday, they reached out to Florida’s Billy Donovan. Donovan has excelled to the level of elite coaches in college basketball, and he is clearly someone who knows how to coach young people.  It would be surprising to see him jump ship for the Cavs, however, if the Cavs somehow land LeBron in the off-season, the Cavs become a very exciting destination.
SOCCER
The other major story of the day: Landon Donovan. Donovan has been the face of US Soccer the past 10 years. He was a hero in the last World Cup, and is the signature player on the team.  He is older now, however, and on Thursday, the coach decided that Donovan didn’t make the final 23-man roster. Many are calling this an outrage, as Donovan is still such an incredible player. People suspect that the coach just had a personal issue with Donovan and didn’t want him on the team, but the coach defended this by saying that some players were just better than Donovan. Despite the fact that Donovan won’t be playing at the World Cup this year, he still said that he will be cheering on his friends and teammates. Â
