Mark Cuban: Sen. McCain, You're No 'Maverick'

Regardless of whom you like for president—or vice president—we’re pretty sure most everyone would vote for a moratorium on the word “maverick.” Unless, of course, that’s the name of your beloved NBA team.

Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet chairman Mark Cuban has had enough of the McCain-Palin campaign co-opting the “maverick” brand—and he’d like it back.  

On his blog—fittingly titled “Blog Maverick”—Cuban lambasted the press last month for its part in perpetrating Sen. John McCain’s maverick mythology. And just last week, he used the start of the NBA pre-season to celebrate his team as “the only Mavericks that matter.”

“Watching Tina Fey on SNL is hysterical,” writes Cuban, referring to Fey’s uncanny impersonation of the other maverick, Gov. Sarah Palin, “but it’s time to return the Maverick name where it truly belongs. On our jerseys.”

Always looking for the angle, Cuban wonders if anyone knows of “any decent players named McCain and Obama” he can sign before asking: “Should I just put McCain on the back of a Mavericks jersey and have someone selling them at Republican rallies and on their website?? Now that’s an idea!”

In an e-mail to B&C, Cuban explained his impatience with all the election-year maverick-talk: “No one believes a politician in this day and age can be a Maverick. They don’t have the jump shot for it.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.