The Story About NBA Team Owner Mark Cuban's Comments on Bigotry That Made Him So Mad He's Demanding an Apology

On Thursday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lashed out at a sports website for its characterization of comments he made about race and bigotry.

.@DaveFinocchio when are you going to take responsibility for the lazy, irresponsible columns that are a daily @BleacherReport occurrence?

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 22, 2014

Cuban's tweets stem from the website Bleacher Report's coverage of his recent interview with Inc.com, in which Cuban spoke candidly about issues of tolerance and prejudice.

"This country has really come a long way, putting any type of bigotry behind us, regardless of who it's towards, whether it's the LGBT community, whether it's xenophobia, fear of people from other countries," Cuban said. "We've come a long way, and with that progress comes a price."

"We're a lot more vigilant... and we're a lot less tolerant of different views," he said. "It's not necessarily easy for everybody to adapt or evolve."

He acknowledged some of the stereotypes he tacitly believes, saying he would feel threatened if he came across "a black kid in a hoodie" or "a guy that has tattoos all over his face, white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere" on the street late at night.

"We're all prejudiced in one way or another," Cuban said.

His admissions came right before he talked about the importance of rejecting those stereotypes, and his assertion that when he comes across bigoted individuals in his organizations, he works to change those attitudes and give them second chances.

In context, Cuban says, his remarks were meant to be an honest attempt to affect change.

Bleacher Report, however, characterized them simply as an admission of blatant bigotry.

The site's report on Cuban's remarks has since been updated, but early versions essentially called Cuban racist.

Take a gander at the cached version of the story, noticing that the URL ends with "mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-says-hes-bigoted-against-a-black-kid-in-a-hoodie."

Image source: screengrab via Google Cache

As the screenshot shows, around 50,000 people read the early version of the story.

Cuban struck back on Twitter.

.@JPCavan could you be any lazier. Just for starters the interview was not with the Tennessean and your quotes were excerpts. #HeadlinePorn

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 22, 2014

. @JPCavan You owe me an apology for calling me a racist. I have my failings and I mentioned those in the interview. But a racist I am not

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 22, 2014

The article's author, Jim Cavan, reportedly responded with a tweet saying, "Two things: 1) Yes, I missed the attribution by one degree. 2) Yes, I did include Cuban's later ramarks. 3) Man… tough crowd tonight."

That tweet appears to have been deleted, and the Bleacher Report article has been updated with a less combative tone and an editor's note reading: "The original headline on this article was changed to better represent the scope of Cuban’s remarks."

(H/T: Awful Announcing)

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Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter