With the Miami Heat making their annual trip to Dallas on Wednesday, Mark Cuban was once again asked about the 2006 NBA Finals, which the Mavericks controversially lost to the Heat in six games after taking a 2-0 lead. He didn't hold back.
"I don't think there's any question that it'll go down as the worst officiated Finals in the history of the game," Cuban said. "I think the league would even agree with that. Maybe I'll stop talking about it on the 10-year anniversary."
Cuban praised Dwyane Wade when asked about his legacy, although he still brought up Wade's frequent fouls drawn in that series.
"He'll go down as one of the all-time great players, I don't think there's any question about that," Cuban said. "He evolved his game from when we played him the first time, to being a more complete player, on the court and off, so he deserves a ton of credit. Doesn't mean it was any more legit what happened in 2006, but they don't look at fouls and put an f, put a ph for 'phantom' or 'fake', versus 'l' for legit. (They just) wear that ring. As I told these guys, I don't typically carry a grudge for more than nine and a half years."
He also said that when he sees Wade, he thinks more about that Finals than the eventual revenge in 2011, where Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks past Wade and LeBron James.
Cuban said the last time he could have interacted with Wade, at an ESPN video shoot after those Finals, they walked by each other without acknowledgement.