Rockets Owner, Leslie Alexander, Joins Mark Cuban in the 100k Club

The owner of the Houston Rockets, Leslie Alexander, was fined $100,000 this week after confronting referees, something that Mark Cuban did three years ago.

On Tuesday night, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder traveled to Houston with their backs against the wall facing elimination.

The Rockets would come out of the game with a six point victory and the series win, but it didn’t come without a price for the owner of the Rockets. A hefty price at that.

During the game, Leslie Alexander apparently left his seat during the game to let referee Bill Kennedy know how he felt about his officiating. ESPN described the event as this…

"“As Kennedy stood watching a play, Alexander got up from his seat next to the national television table. Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon tried to grab the owner’s arm, but he kept walking. Alexander stood behind Kennedy for less than five seconds before walking away. Kennedy did turn his head as Alexander reversed course.” (per ESPN)"

Those few seconds cost Alexander $100,000. You can do the math on how much per second that cost Alexander.

This might some unusual for the mild-mannered Alexander, but there is another owner in Dallas that knows exactly what Alexander is going through.

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On January 15, 2014, Mark Cuban was fined $100,000 for sharing his thoughts with the referees also, but his was after the game had concluded.

"“The NBA announced Saturday that Dallas owner Mark Cuban has been fined $100,000 for “confronting the game officials on the court after the conclusion of the game and directing inappropriate language” following the Mavericks‘ 129-127 loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles on Jan. 15,” Ben Golliver from Sports Illustrated said."

The difference with Cuban’s fine with the referees is that his was somewhat on purpose as according to Marc Stein, Cuban wanted one last fine from David Stern as Stern was stepping down as commissioner of the NBA.

Also, if you remember, Cuban was fined $100,000 for his comments on the free agency of LeBron James back in 2010. More notably, Cuban was fined $250,000 for everything surrounding Game 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals.

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Welcome to the club Leslie Alexander!