Mark Cuban, the former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks before selling a majority stake in the franchise, still has an important role as Head of Basketball Operations, as well as a minority owner. Though still a presence around the team, he has taken a step back from his typical in-game involvement over the years, as he was known for sitting behind the bench every night, at home and on the road.

He had been doing so for nearly 25 years since he bought the Mavericks in January of 2000, but Cuban has a particular reason as to why he isn’t a mainstay at Dallas’ games anymore, whether at the American Airlines Center or elsewhere.

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What is that reason? “The NBA got really, really, really petty, and won’t let me sit behind the bench anymore,” he told Marc Stein of The Stein Line. Because he is no longer a majority owner of the team, he has lost the ability to sit where he typically did – though even then, it was technically a violation of NBA rules to sit right behind the bench. The league bent the rules to accommodate him, but now that he is in a different position in management and ownership, they have revoked his privilege.

A firebrand of a person and one of the most passionate members of Dallas’ premier basketball franchise, Cuban’s absence is noticeable, as he spent much of his time in controversy with officials, and occasionally other fans. Though he mostly matured out of this phase as he grew older, his importance to the franchise overall cannot be understated, and he still holds a crucial role in its operations today.

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