If Dirk Nowitzki won’t stick up for his manhood, Mark Cuban will.
The Mavericks perpetually outspoken owner confronted Warriors coach Steve Kerr after Saturday’s 123-110 Golden State victory in Dallas, where the two had a “nice, pleasant conversation” about Shaun Livingston’s questionable defensive tactics.
“No one plays post defense and does that in normal post defense,” Cuban said after Livingston, a former Net, essentially reached between the big German’s legs and upper-cutted, resulting in a flagrant foul. “That’s not normal post defense. It was obvious.
“The fact that they didn’t throw him out, the league will look at it. I’m not asking for a suspension. I just thought … Kerr said he didn’t see it. I said, ‘Fine. I just think it’s wrong.’ And Shaun came up and said, ‘I didn’t do it on purpose.’ And you know what? No one plays post defense like that. No one goes like this in post defense. And it’s a Hall of Fame player. I would hope that if our guys got mad and did it, they would say something. You don’t do that.”
Livingston took a strong defensive on his defense, hoping his squeaky-clean history will get him off the hook.
“He kind of sat back to create space with his lower area, and it was just bad timing,” Livingston said. “Eleven years in the league, I haven’t had a dirty play. It looked worse than it actually was.”
While Nowitzki was doubled over in pain and went face-to-face with Livingston, he seemed to buy the 29-year-old’s vague explanation.
“Well, I give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s really not that type of player,” Nowitzki said. “He hasn’t been his entire career. I’m not really sure what he was trying to do there, if he was trying to get to the ball through my legs or anything. But like I said, he’s not a dirty player. He’s actually a really, really good dude, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”