What was the NBA’s response to Mark Cuban’s protest after the Mavericks’ controversial loss to Warriors?

Following an official complaint, which was filed by the Dallas Mavericks after their controversial loss to the Golden State Warriors, the league has now taken the stance that owner Mark Cuban - a vocal critic after the game - had a less than precise take on what happened that night.

What happened between the Mavericks and Warriors?

If you missed it, back on March 22nd the Dallas Mavericks faced off against the Golden State Warriors in a contest that ended in a tight 127-125 win for the Warriors. Now, while that in itself would have been hard for anyone to take, there was a specific call that drew the ire of the team from Dallas. During the third quarter, there was a play in which the Mavs could be seen on one side of the court - presumably thinking it was their possession - and the Warriors on the other. The end result was that the Dubs were able to score an uncontested basket courtesy of a Kevon Looney dunk. Needless to say, the two-point margin with which the game ended didn’t help matters at all.

What followed, were protests by Mavericks players as well as head coach Jason Kidd who vehemently argued the play on court with officials. Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, later tweeted that officials initially signaled that possession belonged to his team. As per Cuban, officials changed the call to Warriors possession during a timeout and failed to inform the Mavericks. That notion was flatly contested by crew chief, Sean Wright, who later told the media that the call was in fact communicated on court. “Initially, on the floor, the original signal was, in fact, Golden State ball as this can be seen on video,” Wright said. “There is a second signal, but that signal is for a mandatory timeout that was due to the Mavs.” Fast forward to the present, the NBA has now argued against Cuban’s statement. “Those public statements were inaccurate, and in its written submission in support of protest, Dallas agreed that the referee signaled possession to Golden State,” the NBA wrote of Cuban’s complaint.

Despite their stance the NBA did concede

Though we can’t necessarily say that Cuban is correct, it’s interesting to note that video of the moment in question does appear to show the baseline official initially pointing toward the Warriors side, after which he points to the Mavericks’ end of the floor. Looney protested the second call, seemingly on the grounds that it was the Mavericks’ ball. To add further weight to that idea, some reports have even stated that the PA announcer in the arena said as much. At any rate, the outcome of the game - a Mavericks loss - is now in the books, but it’s worth pointing out that the league did issue a statement on Thursday in which it acknowledged that officials “could have taken steps to better manage this particular situation.”