Mavs & Nuggets & Sticks & Stones

   “If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.’’ – Elbert Hubbard.

   Somebody’s a “thug.’’ Or a “punk.’’ Somebody else is a “fa**ot’’ and a “motherbleeper.’’ Don’t forget about how a certain All-NBA’er isn’t a “true warrior’’ and a “true dawg.’’ A lot of somebodys have a “racist mentality.’’ And now – almost a full week after the end of the Dallas-Denver series – on the name-calling goes, this time Kenyon Martin calling Mark Cuban a “coward.’’

   Consider Cuban’s apology to the K-Mart unaccepted, I guess.

   Martin, speaking to former Denver beat writer Chris Tomasson through HoopsHype, said the Mavs owner’s blogged apology for speaking ill of the player to Martin’s mother means Cuban is “a coward. … “He couldn’t face it… You all read the only apology that he’s made (on his blog)… The world got to see it before the person who it was meant for got to see it. That tells you how that goes. I ain’t never known nobody apology to somebody through other people.’’

   Cuban’s response? He again reiterated his apology and his plan to speak to Martin’s mother personally. But then he also called for Martin himself to engage in the ceasefire by apologizing for his actions, which included yelling profanities at fans during and after Games 3 and 4 in Dallas.

   “I still intend to apologize to Ms. Moore,’’ Cuban wrote in an email, later adding: “I would also like to know if Kenyon is going to take responsibility for his actions rather than hiding behind ‘no comment.’ Will he apologize to the wife of our staff member that he called a ‘(expletive) fat pig’ immediately after Game 3? Will he apologize to fans that he threatened to, and I’m paraphrasing her, ‘(Expletive) beat the (expletive) down’ during Game 4? Or to the fans he walked by after Game 4, (Martin) cursed and gave the finger to? Will he take responsibility for what he said and did? Is there some reason he did not?’’

   And so both sides continue to throw everything at one another except for sticks and stones. Martin’s thuggish playing style earned him a $25,000 fine after Game 1. Then came Cuban’s unflattering remark. Carmelo Anthony’s girlfriend cried racism after she was asked to leave the AAC for her behavior; there is no evidence that race played any role in that event. Nevertheless, Denver coach George Karl accused the Dallas fans of having a “racist mentality.’’ In the middle of the mess, Martin himself screamed homophobic and off-color remarks at anyone within earshot. And in the TNT studios, Charles Barkley and Chris Webber dissed Dirk Nowitzki’s personality with racially-tinged remarks about the perennial MVP candidate being something less than a “true warrior’’ and a “true dawg.’’ Somewhere in here, we needed to define what a "basketball thug'' is.

   A friend of mine who is a music producer and who happens to be black attended Game 4 in Dallas and talked with me about the “culture’’ that produces this sort of thinking.

   “It’s not just a ‘black’ thing, but it is a basketball thing,’’ he said. “There is a mentality that you can’t let somebody ‘punk’ you, and that if somebody else gets the last word on you, you lose.’’

    I guess so. But here we’ve got a mountain of words, a mountain of insults. … so many that I can’t keep ‘em all straight. And where in here is anybody a “winner’’?