Mark Cuban Proves He’s a Genius Once Again With Tony Romo Tribute

The Dallas Mavericks lost their last home game in a losing season and nobody seemed to care because of the genius of Mark Cuban.

For the first time in Mark Cuban’s run as owner of the Dallas Mavericks, the Mavs will have a losing record.

From the early injury to Dirk Nowitzki to the lingering injuries throughout the veteran core, the Dallas Mavericks never seemed to find their rhythm throughout the year as the injury bug was never just a bug.

But even in a season that wasn’t going as planned, fighting for the playoffs was always the goal from day one. Their record wasn’t great and the fans were crying for them to tank, but the Mavericks persevered until they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs a few weeks ago.

At that moment, the tank was rolled out of the garage.

Veterans started to take nights off and players began to shift into positions they weren’t accustomed to playing. Suddenly, the Mavericks became one of the teams that many around the leagued coined as “tanking.”

It wasn’t exactly fun to watch as a fan either.

Coming into Tuesday night’s last home game, Dallas had lost eight of their last nine games where players such as Jarrod Uthoff, Nicolas Brussino and A.J. Hammons would dominate the second half minutes.

So how do you take the focus off of your “tanking” and entice fans to attend your last home game of the season? How could you possibly bring excitement to a city and arena while still trying to lose?

You create the Tony Romo extravaganza.

When news broke around the sports world that Tony Romo would be a ‘Maverick for a day’, the reaction was a bit scattered. Local Dallas fans were excited for a player they have loved for years while many people took to social media to bash the decision and call it embarrassing for both sides.

Whatever your opinion was on the matter, one thing was for certain; Mark Cuban once again proved he was a genius for making it happen.

Rick Carlisle took to ESPN radio on Monday afternoon where he went into detail about what to expect on Tuesday night with Romo. After detailing how Romo would not be signing a contract, but would participate in shootaround, Carlisle did admit that the idea was Cuban’s from the start.

He would go on to say that Cuban ran it by Jerry Jones and everyone in the Cowboys organization before making it a reality.

Then the real circus came.

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For many people, including myself as a credentialed media member, Tuesday night was a simple home game between two teams eliminated from the playoffs. But in a matter 24-48 hours, it instantly became one of the biggest nights of the whole year.

Romo was scheduled to participate at shootaround with the Mavericks and address the media for the only time at 10:30 AM on Tuesday morning. Normally, shootaround media sessions consist of about 8-15 local people who cover the Mavericks on a daily basis.

On Tuesday morning, anyone with a media credential in Texas showed up to bring coverage of the event.

Security workers said media members started showing up in the early hours of Tuesday morning waiting for the opportunity to catch Romo in passing or in uniform. Before it was all over, some 50-80 media members were in attendance on Tuesday morning.

Romo would address the media in a packed out media room where he solely took questions around the Mavericks situation. Then it was a waiting period until the sought after warmups before tip-off.

A normal, 7:30 PM tip-off in Dallas normally sees fans straggling to their seats throughout the first couple of minutes into the game. On Tuesday night, the whole world waited for Romo to take the court.

Romo took the court to a packed house and cheers throughout the crowd. Every moment that Romo had the ball, the crowd gasped as they waited for him to hit a shot or do a fancy dribble move.

"“We have never had this many people here for warmups. Since I have been here nine years and that includes the Finals. I don’t think we have ever had that many people here at 7:15,” Rick Carlisle said after the game."

It was the talk of the city on Tuesday night, but it didn’t stop there. Media from around the country started to tap into the situation and before you knew it, Romo warming up with the Mavericks was a national story.

For a span of 20 minutes (and even a whole night), the Mavericks losing season and “tanking” over the last couple of weeks, was an afterthought. Nobody was thinking about the team record and everyone was excited for the Maverick team on the court.

To make it even better, the Mavericks had to capitalize on the opportunity to sell Romo gear in the fan shop as Romo/Mav jerseys filled the arena. But hopefully you got yours quick, because they seemed to fly off the shelves…

Even though Romo never checked into the game (NBA wouldn’t let him), it still provided some entertainment for the end of the game when Romo decided to tease the fans. Down by double digits, the Mavericks were poised to lose the game but not a single person in the arena cared.

All eyes were on Tony Romo.

https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/851993869281632257

Late in the fourth, Romo came out of his seat and ventured towards Rick Carlisle to check into the game. The crowd erupted in cheers until Mark Cuban jokingly pulled Romo back to his seat. Romo would also get the fans on their feet again after he stood up and ripped his warmup pants off, acting like he was preparing to come into the game.

“The stuff at the end with Romo, that was Mark messing around at the end trying to get the crowd going,” Rick Carlisle said.

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The Mavericks lost (again) and Romo never checked into the game, but we were all entertained.

I couldn’t help to walk out of the arena and say to myself, “Mark Cuban did it, what a sly genius.”

The 32-49 Dallas Mavericks, who have now lost ten of their last twelve games, were being talked about around the country and not because of their tanking. The arena was packed for the last home game of the season and jersey sales went through the roof. The entertainment level was as high as it has been all season.

Mark Cuban did it. He took a rough, roller coaster of season for the Dallas Mavericks and capped off their season with a fun, entertaining night that brought in thousands of dollars and the national spotlight on the Mavericks.

Was the tribute to Romo legit? Absolutely. But was there an opportunity to capitalize on a moment like this for the better of the fans and franchise?

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You got that right and Mark Cuban never let’s those moments pass by.