BOSTON - Perhaps no owner in all of sports is more outspoken than Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
The billionaire businessman, investor, and "shark" usually travels with his team and always seems to be in Boston when the Mavs hit town.
That was the case on Wednesday, and as usual, not much was off limits during conversation. A few years ago, he spoke to us about the NHL lockout, and how he was siding with the owners during it.
This time, he was up for talking Deflategate. And just as he had the NHL owners' backs during the lockout, he was in support of the way NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league handled Deflategate.
That's right, Patriots fans. Cuban is siding with Goodell and not Tom Brady.
"As an owner, I didn't care, right? As an owner, it was obvious to me that it was up to Roger Goodell to take the heat and take responsibility," Cuban said. "And he handled it masterfully, right? The fact that it all got reversed and all that is irrelevant. The NFL always loses their court cases the first time. Always. And then they end up winning after it doesn't matter. But, I don't know if Brady lied or not. Who knows, right? With the whole phone thing and everything. But the reality is it's all about the good of the game and that's what Roger is responsible for and that's what the owners pay him so much money to do. And he's going to do to the best of his ability what he thinks he can and I think that's what he did. It's not about Brady. It's not about anything else. It's how do you manage the golden goose. That's what he's trying to do. I give him credit for taking all the bullets."
You won't find many out there who think Goodell handled Deflategate "masterfully". It's interesting to think how Cuban would feel if the NBA allowed media outlets to run with false reports on Dirk Nowitzki, hanging him out to dry and then hitting him with a 20-game suspension with little to no hard evidence to back any of it up.
New England Patriots
There are plenty of people out there - not just in New England - that feel Goodell has too much power as NFL Commissioner. But again, Cuban isn't one of them.
"No. He's got 32 bosses," Cuban said, referring to the 32 NFL owners. "It's hard to have too much power when you have 32 bosses. Trust me. I don't know the NFL and I'm just guessing, but he ain't doing [expletive] without getting feedback from all the owners."
So there was some rare support for Goodell in Boston on Wednesday. But with the way things are going for Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps Cuban is keeping his options open . . .