Mark Cuban will not be silenced.
The Mavericks owner took to Twitter after a 94-76 loss to the Spurs on Friday to voice his frustration about the lack of respect that Dallas' leading scorer, Monta Ellis, gets from the referees.
It's criminal how Monta doesn't get calls Pushed.Hit in face.Hit on arm.Im tired of turning in calls.Fans need to post video to wake NBA up.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 28, 2015The Mavericks shooting guard left the game with a calf injury after he was kneed while defending Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili. Ellis exited the AT&T Center on crutches.
"It's very sore, but we don't know the extent of it," coach Rick Carlisle said, via ESPN. "We'll see how he feels in the morning and go from there."
Ellis ranks 10th in the NBA this season with 609 drives and has played in 237 consecutive games. He previously scored 38 points on 27 shots and took four trips to the foul line against the Spurs on Tuesday.
“What set me off was Monta’s drive to the basket, where he got hit in the face, (Tim) Duncan got his body lower and his hands were down and (referee) Monty McCutchen said he was straight up and down,” Cuban said, via The Dallas Morning News. “Say he missed it? Cool. Say he’ll look at it? Cool. Say you weren’t sure? Cool. Say it wasn’t your call? Cool.
“But when the second defender doesn't jump, it can't be up and down. When a drive starts at the top of the key and you go straight down, it's not lower box, it can't be up and down unless you jump. That's crazy, and it happens three times a game for Monta, every game. It's ridiculous.”
Cuban disclosed the team sent a lengthy list of missed calls that they believed should have been fouls to the league office.
“Monta's getting smacked and (he’s getting) no calls,” Cuban said.
“It’s crazy. And it’s always the same. (The league says) it’s incidental. It’s not this. It’s not that. We tried. I hope every time something like that happens, fans post a video so that everybody sees it.”
During his 15-year tenure as the Mavericks owner, Cuban has been fined more than $1 million, mostly for criticising referees. He was last fined $100,000 in January 2014 for confronting and cursing at officials on the court following a loss to the Clippers.