What's an unsuccessful season?

You know, going into the players go deep into the playoffs is a successful season.

Everything else doesn't matter.

Um, you know, we do have a great coach.

We got a great players.

You mentioned Maxie Cleveland, the most underrated defensive player in the NBA.

People don't realize what a great defender he is.

His three point shot keeps improving.

Just tell him he'll he'll say, Call me.

You know, he he wants you to know that he can play.

Um, Dodo.

Dorian Finney Smith.

You know, we do this thing.

We track internal, um, analytics things during practice and everything does his his shots selection, his ability to make threes just keeps on improving every single year.

So we expect him to get even better.

You know, we've got all the tools.

We've got a great coach.

We've got Luca who makes everybody better.

KP I'm completely confident he'll stay healthy.

Um, there's this guy is the limit for this team.

I can't understate.

You know, I can't overstate rather how excited I am for these guys.

Mark Cuban.

Let me take it off the court for a little bit because you're more qualified than most.

To answer this question, I know that you're incredibly excited about your team.

You're incredibly excited about this season.

And obviously you were actively involved with a lot of stuff that was going on in the office.

You know, last season, not just with covert, but with Social justice issues.

And I applaud you for all of that.

My question to you would be This is successful is the n b a waas in the bubble with no positive test?

Just recently, we had a game postpone obviously, in Houston with harder than those boys because of covert potential positive tests and things of that nature, I wanna know how concerned are you about this season.

Now that there is no bubble, everybody's gonna be in their respective city.

You're still gonna be traveling to games and things of that nature.

Are you concerned at all about this season going forward uninterrupted?

Yes, of course.

We've already lost a game.

You know, this is a maturity test for all 450 players in the N B A or plus the two way players.

You know this is a chance for guys really toe make mistakes outside the bubble, and it's going to happen.

We've already seen it happen.

You know, one of the reasons I'm traveling with our team on Christmas Day is to show them, you know, that this is important to me, that we need to all be very vigilant.

We can't be going out because we're in L.

A or were Dallas or wherever.

You know, we've got to make sure we're getting tested, were filling out the questionnaire every morning.

We're watching out for each other, and that doesn't mean, you know, keeping an eye on each other, but supporting each other.

You know, I have the saying that I've had for 20 years.

You could have one knucklehead on the team, but you can't have, too, because the two knuckleheads hang out together and cause problems for everybody else.

This year, that's amplified even Mawr.

You can't even have one knucklehead, because if that one knucklehead goes out and doesn't report or doesn't do what they're supposed to, that could infect an entire team and take down.

You know, a good part of your season, because if if you get sick, if somebody gets sick, who knows what the consequences are not just administratively with the MBA but health wise, which is far more important.

So being vigilant about that, making the guys understand how important this is and what's at stake.

That's one of the reasons I'm here on Christmas Day to show my support, to be there with them, to be at the team meals, you know, to let them see me to be sitting alone, even at the games, to show them that, you know, this is not typical.

There's going to be mistake's, we've already seen them, and part of my job is toe reduce of the mistake's here at the maths and hopefully set an example for the entire MBA that it can be done.

Well, you're certainly setting the tone.

I kind of want to stay with That subject is one of the dominant story lines Of late has been James Harden in his tenuous relationship with the Rockets Mark.

If you were in charge of that team, how would you handle the situation moving forward?

You know, I don't want to speak for another owner, another organization, you know, we've had issues in our team and every team goes through something and players have to make their own decisions about what's best for them.

Um, I just tried Thio.

Keep my relationships with our players as strong as possible so that in the event they want change, we can handle it privately and deal with it privately.

I mean, I've certainly had players request and even demand trades over the past 20 years, and we've just dealt with it.

We tried not to make it public.

And there's, you know, again, I don't want to speak for another owner or player organization.

It is never an easy set of circumstances.

Mark, don't you feel that you owe the people of New York and Apology?

After all, they knew it was an incredibly bad idea to trade Kristaps Porzingis, and you took advantage of it completely inept franchise.

How dare you?

Don't you owe the people of New York an apology?

The many Knicks fans who you robbed of Kristaps Porzingis?

Merry Christmas, Max.

It's a beautiful day for basketball.

We're gonna have all these games tune in on ESPN.

I mean, what's better on Christmas Day?

Open your presents and spend a whole day watching basketball.

That's my thank you to New York, Dallas L.

A Miami, Chicago, all MBA cities.

Marcus crazy is this question may sound.

I'm gonna ask it, Z It's crazy.

Is this question may sound Mark.

I'm gonna ask it anyway, because I know that obviously with the Greek freak electing to stay in Milwaukee, you got a guy that committed to stand toe, you know, a smaller market.

We see how you know the league pays attention.

All that stuff.

The league definitely endorses such a thing, but it just seems to be something extra special.

When you got a Los Angeles Lakers squad as an N b A champion right now, it seems to be a great, great thing for the NBA.

Could you talk about where you think the n B A is now?

Because a team like the Lakers are in the eye of the storm and everybody's shooting for them because they stand is the champions today?

This is your appointment?

Nothing.

Nothing, Stephen, Nothing.

You know nothing.

When we were the champ when they here were the chance.

You know, it doesn't matter who the champ is.

They're always going to be gun for this whole concept of the big cities on the coast have to be good for everybody.

Thio, get excited about the MBA.

Not in this world anymore that you know, you and I are getting old.

Stephen, that was 20 years ago, um, right now with social media and that, you know, we care about Luca, you know, and that's what's happening.

Mawr.

The players are becoming mawr of mawr key thio awareness and interest from younger kids Gen Z than even the teams are.

So we've got to pay special attention, toe Maura about, you know, how strong is LeBron social media again, which is very strong.

How much?

How strong is Lucas Social Media game, which is even stronger than LeBron?

Okay, I said it.

You know how strong is Yannis is social media.

These are the things that matter these days in terms of interest in those days off, building the coast up and you gotta have interest from the coast, you know, because we're not a TV centric, um, awareness, um, society anymore, particularly for younger kids.

You know, it's just it's just different.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.