Cuban Kicks Out Bloggers

Fellow billionaire blogger (or, fellow blogger anyway) just kicked out all bloggers from the locker room of Mavericks games. Wow, Mark. Not very "Web 2.0" of you. Maybe he's just cranky because he traded the future of the mavs for old man kidd. I heard Jason Kidd takes respirator breaks in between quarters and sometimes plays with a cane.

The interesting "coincidence" is that the move was made after a blogger (and journalist for the Dallas Morning News), Tom MacMahon gave coach Avery Johnson shit for benching Kidd in the last minute of a close game. Story written, next day bloggers are banned. Unfortunately, Tom seems to be the only media member affected. Very interesting...

The Dallas Mavericks will not allow ANY writer into the locker room areas pre-game and post-game whose primary purpose is to blog no matter what affiliation. They may still represent their respective publication at games but will not be granted locker room access.

Furthermore, if a blog writer is coming to cover a game, the publication must inform the Mavericks PR staff they are sending a blogger. In order to enforce this policy, we must know this information.

We have gone this route because we did not want to give preferential treatment to any blogger, whether they are an individual or from a large media outlet. We just do not have enough room in the locker room, nor enough media passes to fairly accommodate everyone.

According to Mark, this rule will only apply to the NBA. The NFL, of course, should abide by separate, blogger-loving rules. In 2006, he said the following:

The NFL is making a mistake because this should be the time, because they're on the top of the hill, they should be finding easier ways to connect, because it really doesn't cost them any money, they're on the top of the hill. Everything's going great. As opposed to building a walled garden around themselves, that's a mistake.

Again, very interesting...