Cuban On A-Rod: 'It's Disgraceful What MLB Is Trying To Do To Him'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was a guest on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Thursday night, and unsurprisingly, the outspoken business magnate didn't hold back his opinions.
Cuban didn't mince words when he was asked about the 211-game suspension of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
"(It's) horrible," Cuban told Leno. "I think it's disgraceful what Major League Baseball is trying to do to him. Look, it's not that he doesn't deserve to be suspended. He does. They have policies in place: A first-time offender is 50 games, and a second time is 100. (211 games), that's personal."
The Mavs' owner famously has a history with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball. Cuban attempted to buy the Cubs in 2008 and, two years later, submitted a bid to purchase the Texas Rangers. He didn't win the right to own either club.
"I've got to tell you, with my experiences with Major League Baseball -- and after all of this, there's no chance I'm getting to buy a team -- it's basically become Bud Selig's mafia," Cuban told the talk-show host. "He runs it the way he wants to run it. They don't want me to own a team. When I was trying the buy the Rangers, even after the Cubs, when I was trying to buy the Texas Rangers, it was an open option.
"I sat in there with my good, hard-earned money trying to bid, and they did everything possible to keep me from buying the team. They had lawyers in there trying to change the rules; they had people trying to put up more money. It was horrible."
Cuban didn's stop there. He continued to criticize the MLB commissioner.
"Obviously, Bud Selig does not like to be tested," Cuban said. "He does not want anybody to stand up to him."
Despite Rodriguez's suspension for his ties to the now-defunct Biogenesis of America clinic, the 14-time All-Star is currently playing for New York. The Major League Baseball Players Association has filed an appeal on A-Rod's behalf, and the process is expected to go into November or December, meaning that Rodriguez will likely play for the Bombers for the remainder of the season.
"It shouldn't be that way," Cuban told Leno in regard to the treatment of Rodriguez. "That's one of the poor things about sports. How much money a player makes should have nothing to do with the way you treat them. The reality is the guy broke the rules. He basically admitted that he had broken the rules before. But to come out (with the suspension MLB is going for) and try to give him a lifetime ban, that's just wrong."
Cuban also addressed human growth hormone in his interview, and stated that the effectiveness of performance-enhancing drugs for professional athletes has never been proven.
"Being in sports, I try to pay attention to all of the technology and everything," Cuban said. "It's never been proven that HGH helps a baseball player or a basketball player. It's just been so tainted that players shouldn't take it that it's become banned for no good reason. You can go in a lot of different directions.
"But I think this is more about Bud Selig trying to flex his muscles and say, 'If you don't kiss the ring, I'm going to take care of you and kick you out of Major League Baseball.' I think that's wrong."
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