Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says don’t hand Lakers the crown yet

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is salty about something regarding the Lakers. What’s new ::giggle:: This time Cuban wants people to stop crowning the reloaded Lakers as NBA Champions:

“The Lakers have done this before,” Cuban said. “Remember Gary Payton, Karl Malone and Kobe and Shaq were all together, and it didn’t work.

“It takes great chemistry, like coach (Rick Carlisle) alluded to, it takes guys wanting to be there — I don’t know if all their guys want to be there — it’s going to be interesting.

“Look, (the Lakers are) going to be a great team, but I remember when we made our run,” Cuban said. “We weren’t supposed to win any series. The Lakers were defending champs when we swept them, and they had everybody back. A lot of teams do a great job winning the summer, but I never get so antsy about what happens over the summer.”

Well, the problem that season wasn’t chemistry, it was injury. Karl Malone wasn’t 100% and during that season, things sort of played the way Malone’s health went. Similar to the way that Gasol loosing his mojo in the playoff series Cuban refers to a few seasons ago. But I think everyone knows that there will be a learning curve to the new moves and there’s still no estimated return for Dwight Howard but overall, he sounds a tad bitter.

The Mavericks should be a little shook. Since winning the championship in 2011, the team hasn’t gotten better. Dirk is of an advance age and the West continues to get bigger and faster. Not just the Lakers and OKC, the Trailblazers and Grizzlies could have a lot to say about the Mavs future. With the Hornets on the verge of an uptick and even the Warriors improving significantly on paper.

And lastly, let’s not forget that the Mavs were supposedly in the Dwight Howard sweepstakes. That coupled with the fact that this was said during an event with potential season ticket-holders, realize that Cuban is of course going to focus on the obvious negatives.