The NBA’s referees are openly fighting Mark Cuban

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

WAR OF WORDS: The NBA’s referee union is moving toward open war with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski published a cache of league memos to refs as the union’s general counsel attempts to paint Cuban as a bully who tries to intimidate officials and was involved in ousting one. (Here are the documents themselves.) Cuban fought back, insisting that he has only pointed out or emphasized data-backed facts about the performance of certain referees.

The NBA is backing Cuban pretty strongly, for what it’s worth. The refs’ union has become increasingly aggressive in fighting transparency reports and now the league’s loudest owner. This is what unions should do: fight to improve the work life of its membership. I’m just not sure what they think the endgame is here. Does anyone think Adam Silver is going to tell one of his 30 bosses to pipe down? Does anyone think publicly attacking Cuban is going to mute him?

Fighting on principle is fine. In fighting L2M reports, the refs have a clear goal: turn public sentiment against the transparency reports. But I’d really like to know the refs’ goal here in battling Cuban because, from the outside, it looks like spitting into the wind.

SCORES GALORE ...

Pacers 112, Nuggets 140
Pelicans 104, Nets 95
Bulls 89, Knicks 104
Lakers 94, Spurs 134
Mavericks 113, Suns 108
Pistons 107, Warriors 127

YES! The Spurs retired Matt Bonner’s flannel shirt.

PLEASE PROCEED: The NBA is looking at rule changes to speed up the ends of games.

BEEEEEEEF: Hassan Whiteside is #MadOnline about Joel Embiid’s All-Star vote “gimmick.” Sounds like someone is salty he’s not top five in the East frontcourt in All-Star voting!

SPEAKING OF AMAZING ALL-STAR VOTE TOTALS ... Zaza Pachulia is still No. 2 in the West frontcourt. He’s still not getting in, but he is actually not far behind Kevin Durant and is absolutely trouncing Draymond Green.

WELL THEN: News spread this week that the Warriors had hired former SFPD chief Greg Suhr as a security adviser. There was much outrage due to the horrible scandals Suhr presided over in San Francisco. The Warriors then announced they wouldn’t be working with Suhr after all.

NEXUS OF POWER: I wrote about the Spurs’ common/uncommon excellence in this week’s NBA Power Rankings. No team makes fewer mistakes than San Antonio.

EVERYTHING: Isaiah Thomas is doing everything the Celtics ask of him, writes Tim Cato.

SOON: Joel Embiid’s playoff dream isn’t too far off, writes Kristian Winfield.

THE NEXT DOMINO: Jared Dubin with a cogent piece on the unintended consequences of the DeMarcus Cousins deal and new incentives to stay with the team that drafted you.

HATER ALERT: Steph tried to kick in a shot, but Klay Thompson ruined it.

MENSCH: Amar’e Stoudemire on playing in Israel.

NEXT UP: ESPN has Celtics-Hawks (8 p.m.) followed by Pistons-Jazz (10:30 p.m.). On Saturday, NBA TV has Spurs-Suns at 6 p.m. ESPN’s Sunday night game is Bulls-Grizzlies at 9 p.m. All times are ET.

AND FINALLY: KG and Shaq getting massages in Area 21. What a world.

Be excellent to each other.