Mark Cuban knows the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks got game
02/12/2016
Steve Goldberg's Wheel World
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Mark Cuban knows the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks got game

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - When it comes to NBA team owners, Michael Jordan is unquestionably the best player of the bunch but when it comes down to who is the most ardent basketball fan among them, Mark Cuban stands alone.

As his team, the Dallas Mavericks were in Charlotte Thursday night to play the Hornets, I took the chance to ask him about the D-town's NWBA side, the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks.

The 2015-16 NWBA Championship Division National Champions Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks. Photo by Steve Goldberg/SCS Media.

"We're proud of them," said Cuban as he sat courtside before the game. "They're amazing. I wish we were half the dynasty that they are."

The current numbers speak to that. Last April, the Wheelchair Mavericks won their 14th NWBA Championship Division title in the past 20 seasons. Through last night, so far this year, the NBA Mavericks have only won 3 of 18 games and the immediate future doesn't see dramatic improvement upon that.

They are a dynasty; it's incredible. They are good guys and they represent Dallas very well. - Cuban on the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks

Cuban, who also stars in the American venture-capital based TV show called Shark Tank, told me that he's sat in with the wheelchair ballers before.

"I've shot with them. I'd like to say I was embarrassed."

"It's humbling," I responded, recalling my own experience trying to play the game. "Very much so," he agreed.

I asked him why it was important for the Mavericks to endorse wheelchair basketball.

"Listen, not everyone has the same physical attributes and we want everyone to be a basketball junkie, to be able to get on the court and be able to participate. Not only is it good for them physically and mentally and competitively but it's great for us as well. It creates basketball fans."

"It's an integral part of the community and they are something we are very, very proud of."

When I asked Cuban if he believed that the growing television exposure of Paralympic athletes in general, and wheelchair basketball in particular, effected change in social perception of disability, he responded, "I believe that's a message they convey every day, the Paralympics aside. There are people who are inspirational with a variety of disabilities (as well as those) without disabilities."

"I think (when it comes to) inspirational people, their physical attributes are secondary. I don't think what's on TV changes that. Inspirational people are inspirational."

Though he wasn't referring to himself, others would. Many people find inspiration in the success Cuban demonstrated in building a tech company called Broadcast.com into a multibillion-dollar business. The sale of that company in 1999 gave him enough money to allow him to buy controlling interest in the Mavericks in 2000, which he guided from mediocrity to an NBA title in 2011.

In the same neighborhood that is greater Dallas is Willie Hernandez, who coincidentally plays for the Wheelchair Mavericks. And while I am impressed with the athletic skills that made Hernandez a member of the USA Wheelchair Basketball Team I covered at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, I am far more admiring of what he has done off the court.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with Willie Hernandez (right) and Guillaume Legendre of France at NBA Cares clinic during 2010 NBA All-Star Week in Dallas. Photo courtesy of Guillaume Legendre

I first met Willie in Atlanta four years earlier when I was chief press officer for the 1996 Paralympic Games and he was just a young player dreaming of getting to that level. At that moment though, he was just hoping to get into the athletes village as a guest. He did. I was swayed by his enthusiasm then but what has inspired me about him since is what he's done off the court.

Using the engineering degree that he earned, in part supported by his basketball skills, Hernandez started a wheelchair manufacturing company called Per4max. Ever the point guard, he brought in others who share and add to his expertise both in the office and from on the court. Others on the roster who have represented the USA include Jay Nelms, Aaron Gouge, Danny Fik, and Chris Kommer. No wonder the Wheelchair Mavs are so good. They can practically hold practice at an office meeting.

They make customized sports wheelchairs and are competing against the American and global big guys like Quickie (Sunrise Medical), Top End (Invacare), Meyra (Ottobock,Germany), RGK (Sunrise Medical, Great Britain), and TopMedi (China). In NBA terms, think of it as a small market team competing with the big market teams.  

Depending on how you keep score, David may not be beating Goliath yet but they are competing. There's a lesson to be learned from Cuban who started small and got big, and then started small again but got bigger. It's a cycle of success, and some failures here and there, but not without keeping in touch with what made you successful on the way to big.

It all comes together to make Dallas a wheelchair basketball cornucopia. You've got an NBA team that shares its name and colors with the most successful adult team in NWBA history and a junior program that is equally celebrated and influential. In between, you have the champion level men's and women's teams of the University of Texas-Arlington that takes young athletes and matures them into top national- and world-class players. And, to top that, there's even a wheelchair basketball-centric company that might employ them.

I have no doubt that Mark Cuban will get his NBA team back into championship consideration because that's who he is. But until then, they've got the Wheelchair Mavericks to be proud of.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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Steve Goldberg

Steve Goldberg

Eight years after first getting a glimpse of wheelchair basketball at the 1988 Paralympics in Seoul when covering the Olympics for UPI, Steve Goldberg got the chance to really understand the game as Chief Press Officer for the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta. He's been a follower of the sport ever since. Over the years, the North Carolina-born and bred Tar Heel fan - but University of Georgia grad - has written on business, the economy, sports, and people for media including Time, USA Today, New York magazine, Reuters, Universal Sports, TNT, ESPN, New York Daily News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Olympian. Steve Goldberg's Wheel World will look at the past, present and future of wheelchair basketball.