Another Skip Bayless gem

This may be his worst one yet. We all know how the format works, so let's dive in...

LeBron!

Sorry, just wanted to keep your attention for six letters. This isn't about LeBron. Goodbye.

No, forgive me, this is about the defending National Basketball Association champions.

Oh Skip, you tricky devil. Wait, the title of the story is "Cuban's in charge of this series." I really wasn't expecting anything about LeBron...also, as you find out when you read the rest of his filth, this story is actually not about the Spurs. It's about Mark Cuban, as the title suggests. Oh well, I would expect no less from Bayless.

No, while Duncan once again has been the best player in the playoffs, the MVP of this series has been Mark Cuban. He owns the Mavericks -- and, apparently, the minds of the refs.

First off, way to slip in a statement like "Duncan once again has been the best player in the playoffs" without providing any evidence to support this claim. Remember that guy LeBron that you're not going to talk about? Not only is he scoring six points per game more than Duncan against much better defenses (and defenses that are almost exclusively focused on stopping him), he has single-handedly taken the Cavs to a game 7 (actually, when this column was written, he had them up 3-2) against the Detroit Pistons, who were supposed to waltz through the Eastern Conference playoffs.
As for this claim that Cuban owns the refs, that's what the rest of the column is about...so you can see where this is going.

He (Cuban) once said he wouldn't hire the NBA's director of officials "to manage a Dairy Queen."
Now in Dallas, he has turned the refs into soft ice cream.

Laaaaaaaaame.

The Spurs were privately furious after both games in Dallas.

Here we go again. Note the word "privately." First he claimed to know the private thoughts of Kobe Bryant, now he knows the private thoughts of the entire San Antonio team. It's a good thing we've got our mind-reading sports writer to let us know exactly how everyone feels at all times.

On the whole Jason Terry incident...
This was no judgment call. The tape didn't lie. But now it's as if Dallas has gotten away with so much in this series that Terry thinks he can get away with going Andrew Golota on ex-teammate Finley.

Wow. That just might be the most ridiculous claim Skip has ever made. Terry thought he could get away with a groin shot because Cuban has the refs under his thumb...I hate you Skip Bayless.

Beautiful: Cuban is turning the Mavs into victims. And he knows most of his fans -- and some in the media -- will buy his baloney. Deep down, the refs probably will, too.

But not you Skip, right? After all, you can read minds.

The Spurs have practically no chance in Game 6. Yes, Dallas will be down a quick guard who scored 32 points while playing 51 minutes in the Game 4 overtime win. But you watch: Duncan or Ginobili will be whistled for foul No. 6 before this one is over.

Team Turnoff will be eliminated. The NBA world will be safe.

No Spurs fouled out, and the Spurs won to push it to a game 7 in San Antonio, which they will probably win. Practically no chance? I love it when Skip is wrong.

The sixth (foul) came when Dirk Nowitzki went hurtling down the lane and Duncan merely ran across his path, making sure to hold his hands back over his shoulders and away from Nowitzki's arms.

Merely ran across his path? That's called a blocking foul Skip. You can't run into someone's path. I saw that play. It was a foul. And if we're talking about 'respect fouls' then this was a really bad example: not only because it was most definitely a foul on Duncan, but because the offensive player, Nowitzki, deserves a good amount of respect from the refs as well. If this had been called an offensive foul, which I assume Skip is saying it should have been, it would have been a huge injustice to the best white player in the NBA (I couldn't resist an opportunity to take another dig at Steve Nash).

More on this call...
Referee Joey Crawford, one of the best, was standing in the corner near Cuban. He blew his whistle. Then he walked all the way to the official scorer before divulging if Duncan was gone. You wonder if Crawford was trying to think of a scenario in which he could pin it on any other Spur.

Okay, forget the comment on the Terry attack, this is most definitely the most absurd thing Skip has ever written...in this article. Really, this is classic Skip. Come up with some absurd theory that you have no reason to believe other than an idea popping into your head, select an incident (any incident will do; just draw one out of a hat), and find a way to make this incident support your claim. This is usually accomplished by making claims about what people were thinking or feeling.
The result: Wow Skip, you really have a point there. At first I didn't believe that the games were fixed by Cuban, but now that you mention it, that ref probably WAS trying to think of a scenario in which he could pin it on another Spur. But wait, since Duncan is the best player in the playoffs, and this was his sixth foul, wouldn't pinning it on another Spur have helped San Antonio out? But weren't you trying to say that the refs were against the Spurs? Oh, I'm confused. You're argument makes no sense.

It makes even less sense that this guy has a job...did I mention that the Mavs have been called for more fouls in the series than the Spurs have? No? Neither did Skip.