Despite his Dallas Mavericks trailing their opening round NBA Playoffs series 1-3 against the Oklahoma City Thunder (and trailing Game 5 as I write this), Mark Cuban still doesn’t believe that one of OKC’s biggest stars is that good…so to put it.
Mark Cuban says Kevin Durant is the Thunder's only superstar. What about Russell Westbrook? "He's an All-Star but not a superstar."
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 25, 2016
Damn, how could Cuban even suggest that Russell Westbrook isn’t a superstar? The dude only averaged 23.5 points, 10.7 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game this season, and tied Magic Johnson’s all-time triple-double mark of 18. Not a superstar, eh?
Cuban expanded his opinions speaking with Erik Horne from The Oklahoman ahead of Monday night’s game:
You look at Dirk [Nowitzki] all those years to now, he carries teams to 50 wins. To me, that’s (what makes a superstar) … when you by yourself … it wasn’t until we got J-Kidd (Jason Kidd) that we had another Hall of Famer. So, to go the 15 years where Dirk won 50, that’s a superstar. There’s only a few guys you put them on any team and they’ll win 50 games. To me that’s the definition of a superstar.
So, a player who, by most accounts, would’ve won the MVP this year if not for the Golden State Warriors record breaking efforts on the shoulders of Steph Curry, isn’t a superstar?
Mind games, Cubes. Mind games!
Alas, it doesn’t look like they’re panning out too well, as the Mavs are trailing the Thunder by 11 in the first quarter of a do-or-die game tonight.
[H/T Bleacher Report]