DALLAS (MCT) — This may come as a surprise to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his billion-dollar football cronies. But Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is predicting the demise of the National Football League by the year 2024.
Prior to the Mavs’ Sunday contest against Brooklyn, Cuban said folks will stop watching the NFL if it keeps adding more nights to televise its games.
“I think the NFL is 10 years away from implosion, so I’m looking forward to that,” Cuban said. “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
“When you try to take it too far, at some point people turn the other way. I’m just telling you when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns them away.”
Never mind that the NBA is basically on seven days a week. Cuban believes no one wants to commit to watching the NFL more than two days a week.
“They’re trying to take over every night on TV,” Cuban said. “Yeah, they’re the biggest rating thing that there is.”
Cuban is OK with the NFL being televised on Sunday and Monday and even on Thursday. But any other day…
“At some point, people get sick of it.”
Cuban just doesn’t think people want to watch the NFL all those days of the week regardless of how popular the sport is right now.
“It was just so easy when I could just plan on Sunday or maybe Monday, but now Thursday, and then they’ll do Saturday, I’ve heard,” Cuban said. “And then Sunday and Monday.
“And if you have Wednesday, you’ll get no days off from football, and your team is playing one of those days … It’s one of the rules I always use. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.”
NO BUTTERFLIES
To help celebrate his birthday, Nets coach Jason Kidd went out to dinner Saturday night in Dallas with some family members and friends.
Kidd, though, didn’t have an extra butterflies when he arrived at American Airlines Center on Sunday for the first time as an NBA coach.
“It’s just like any other arena,” Kidd said. “It’s always good to come back where you won a championship, so it’s a good feeling.”
Kidd, who turned 41 Sunday, was the starting point guard for the Mavs when they captured the 2011 NBA title. He noted that he learned patience and trust while playing the 2008-12 seasons for Mavs coach Rick Carlisle.
“Trust in the guys out on the floor, trust that they’re going to do the right things,” said Kidd, who received a warm ovation during pregame introductions. “And then being patient that sometimes things just don’t happen overnight.”
CUBAN SAYS KIDD COULD BE PLAYER-COACH
Back in the day, Bill Russell and Lenny Wilkens did the unthinkable and played and coached the Boston Celtics and Seattle Supersonics, respectively, at the same time.
But Cuban believes Jason Kidd could turn back the clock and duplicate what Russell and Wilkens were able to accomplish.
“For a game or two, yeah,” Cuban said. “The problem is the grind of a whole season, but give J-Kidd credit.”