The Dallas Morning News report that Mark Cuban is considering drafting Baylor women’s basketball standout Brittney Griner reinforces the notion that the Dallas Mavericks owner is a marketing genius.
Griner has about as much chance of making the team as she does at sinking a full-court jumpshot at the buzzer.
But Cuban’s as wily as old Bill Veeck.
Who’s Veeck?
He’s the Major League Baseball owner who hired a little person (3-foot 7-inch tall Eddie Gaedel) in 1951 and inserted him into the lineup. (How would you like to try and hit that strike zone as a pitcher?) Veeck’s biography is even titled “Baseball’s Greatest Maverick.”
Grimes will go deep in the draft with a relatively meaningless pick, create national publicity of mammoth proportions, and then fade away while Cuban comes off as a beacon of women’s rights and a PR genius.
What’s Cuban got to lose?
Oh wait, he’ll lose a second round pick.
Second rounders who have dribbled orange balls in these parts lately include Jae Crowder and Eduardo Najera.
Even the attention-craving Cuban won’t be so reckless as to throw away a pick.
Will he?
