Mavericks owner blasts refs, files protest for loss to Warriors

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Mavericks owner blasts refs, files protest after embarrassing blunder in loss to Warriors

Originally posted on Sportsnaut | By Jason Burgos | Last updated 3/23/23

The Dallas Mavericks made headlines on Wednesday for a major blunder during their loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the team’s owner believes one official was the cause of the mistake and likely the defeat.

Wednesday night offered a confusing moment for the Mavericks in their game against the Warriors. In the third quarter, after a deflection out of bounds, referee Andy Nagy made the call that the Warriors would have the ball. However, he quickly pointed in two different directions with the second signaling that a timeout was called by Dallas.

Unfortunately, the signals confused the Mavericks public announcer, and he proclaimed that the home team had the ball, furthering Dallas’ belief that it regained possession when that wasn’t the case. The indecision led to a moment that went viral as the Mavs were on the other side of the court expecting to have the ball, while the Warriors inbounded it and got an easy score on their side of the floor.

In most cases, the embarrassing moment would be something the team would want to quickly move on from, but the Mavericks ended up losing the pivotal matchup with another team jockeying for playoff position by two points, 127-125. Following the loss, the team’s owner took to his Twitter and blasted Nagy for what he considered one of the worst non-call mistakes in NBA history.

“The ref called Mavs ball. The announcer announced it. Then there was a timeout. During the time out the official changed the call and never told us. Then when they saw us line up as if it were our ball, he just gave the ball to the Warriors. Never said a word to us. They got an easy basket. … Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA. All they had to do was tell us and they didn’t.”
– Mavericks owner Mark Cuban

Crew chief Sean Wright disputed Cuban’s comments after the game, but Dallas reportedly filed a formal protest of the specific moment in the eventual loss. However, a ruling in the Mavericks’ favor is highly unlikely with the league agreeing with a formal protest only five times in the history of protests. The last came all the way back in 2007.

The Mavericks are currently in the ninth spot in the Western Conference, a game and a half out of avoiding the NBA play-in tournament. The Warriors are the team in the last spot before the four teams that will be in the mini-tourney.

This article first appeared on Sportsnaut and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: