They really do everything bigger in Texas: especially Twitter beefs.
That was the case on Tuesday morning when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a battle royale with Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban.
It all started when the Texas Republican tweeted a story from Sean Hannity’s website noting that ratings for the NBA finals are down this year.
It’s “not surprising,” Cruz claimed, ending his tweet with the snarky hashtag #GoWokeGoBroke, a suggestion that NBA support for the Black Lives Matter movement is somehow to blame for low ratings.
Cuban was quick to respond, accusing the senator of “rooting” for a business that employs many Texans not to do well this year.
Cruz then insisted he does root for Texas teams, especially the Houston Rockets, and attempted to blame the low ratings on what he called the NBA’s effort to “turn every game into a left-wing political lecture.”
Although Cuban has been out in front supporting Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements, other NBA owners haven’t been as open. But Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly told owners that the phrase “Black Lives Matter” would be on NBA courts regardless of their own personal opinions. The NBA is also donating $300 million to causes promoting Black empowerment over the next decade.
Cuban bit back. Hard. And he didn’t mince words, telling Cruz he was “full of shit” and asking “You haven’t watched a game of the finals, how would you know what is being said or done?”
“I wish @mcuban loved his fans as much as he loves Chinese money,” Cruz shot back, a reference to the way the NBA pressured Houston Rockets’ general manager, Daryl Morey, to delete a tweet critical of the Chinese government’s anti-democratic practices after blowback from China, an important NBA market.
Cuban didn’t take the bait. He seemed to get the last word in by pointing out that Cruz himself doesn’t seem to support policies that really help Americans.
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