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And with that, it was on. Over the last six days, Trump has mentioned Cuban in at least 17 tweets, criticizing his golf game – he is "short off the tee," a "weak man with a big mouth" and has "no clubhead speed" – his personality – "@mcuban has less TV persona than any other person I can think of. He’s an arrogant, crude, dope who met some very stupid people" – and his Dallas Mavericks – "why does @mcuban continue to embarrass the 31-35 & 11th place @dallasmavs with childish behavior." Yahoo! Sports

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Donald Trump 

Fisher added that he would not return the volley that Cuban lobbed toward him when he signed with the Thunder. Fisher has learned in a 17-season NBA career that it serves him no purpose to get in a war of words with Cuban. “Nah, I love Mark and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he’s done and does in terms of this team,” Fisher said. “There’s no question about how passionate he is for his team. If it was my team and I wanted to win, I would want as many players that I felt like could help me. “I take it more as a positive thing than a negative. He saw some value I provided and would like to still have me here. But as far as long term for me, I don’t have any issues with Mark and hopefully one day, we’ll be able to get past this and have much more things to enjoy and laugh about than the short few weeks here.” Dallas Morning News

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

The Derek Fisher-Dallas Mavericks saga had one last loud go-round Sunday, as the point guard who played nine games for Dallas between Thanksgiving and Christmas was lustily booed when he checked in late in the first quarter. Mavs owner Mark Cuban led the chorus. “I’ll just boo him like hopefully everybody else,” Cuban said prior to the Mavs taking on Fisher’s new team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. NBA.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

On Sunday, Cuban said that Fisher repeatedly made pitches to him and asked for advice before signing with the Mavs. Cuban said he “took the bait.” “With his history, I shouldn’t have been surprised with what happened,” Cuban said. “I tried to offer him some help. I thought I offered him some positive encouragement and advice, and then we signed him. I expected a different turnout than what happened.” NBA.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

“It’s not so much what he did,” Cuban said. “It’s how he did it.” NBA.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

While Fisher expressed a fondness for Cuban and others in the Mavs' organization before Sunday night's game at the American Airlines Center, that feeling isn't mutual, at least as far as Cuban is concerned. "I'll just boo him like hopefully everybody else," Cuban said. After Fisher signed with the Thunder, Cuban reacted with sarcasm, mockingly saying that Fisher's kids had grown up a lot in 65 days and that it was much easier to fly in and out of Oklahoma City than Dallas. On Sunday night, Cuban directly questioned Fisher's integrity. "I took the bait," Cuban said. "The lies that were behind it, I don't know." ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

"My personality is to try to help somebody, particularly somebody that I thought one thing about, even if it didn't turn out to be that way," Cuban said. "So I was just trying to be nice and help. Usually when you help somebody, you expect at least some semblance of loyalty back. When you don't get it, then it's more disappointing. "With his history, I shouldn't have been surprised what happened." ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

"I love Mark and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he's done and does in terms of this team," Fisher told the Dallas Morning News after Sunday's shootaround. "There's no question about how passionate he is for his team. If it was my team and I wanted to win, I would want as many players that I felt like could help me. "I take [Cuban's criticism] more as a positive thing than a negative. He saw some value I provided and would like to still have me here. But as far as long term for me, I don't have any issues with Mark and hopefully one day, we'll be able to get past this and have much more things to enjoy and laugh about than the short few weeks here." ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban 

Q: How do you think new salary cap rules will affect the league? Mark Cuban: Just look around. It's already impacted us and other teams, too. It really gets expensive this summer, so we'll see. We're not conservative at all, but a lot of other teams are. Cleveland Plain Dealer

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Salary Cap 

Vince Carter is the sixth man on the Mavericks but has played the third-most minutes on the team this season. He poured in 22 points against Minnesota and 23 against Milwaukee in victories this week. He’s no role player for the Mavericks — and he’s 36. “Thirty-six is the new 30,” Cuban said. “It’s a plus-six right now. Ten years from now it will be a plus-10. Guys that are coming out of college now will be playing at 42 and 43 if they’re good. “Look at Vince, for gosh sakes. What’s he … 93? [Actually] 36? That’s a plus-two on Dirk. It’s just different now.” Dallas Morning News

Dallas Mavericks, Vince Carter, Mark Cuban 

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joined Jay Leno on The Tonight Show on Wednesday. Here are some highlights: On Lakers fans hating him: “I cannot even talk especially on Twitter. Everybody on Twitter, they get Twitter courage. If I even mention a Lakers name, my Twitter timeline just heats up with everybody. They’re going to burn down my house. They’re going to beat me up. They’re going to play me 1-on-1 and just stomp me. It’s just horrible.” Dallas Morning News

Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Mark Cuban 

On his comments about Kobe Bryant: “I would never say anything about Kobe. But what happened was I was trying to explain the collective bargaining agreement, which is hard to do and why the Mavs have signed certain players and not some others so I had to give an example. One of the examples I used included a player on the Lakers, but I can’t really go into it because the league called me up like they like to do and said ‘you say one more word, and it’s going to cost you.’ When the league says that, it usually means $1 million so we can’t talk about it.” Dallas Morning News

Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant, Mark Cuban 

A scary midair incident over the weekend had the Chicago Bulls borrowing airplanes to get around this week. On Saturday night, the Bulls were flying to Indianapolis for Sunday's game against the Pacers. "Apparently a compressor in engine No. 3 had some trouble, and it sounded like it exploded, but I guess it's like a jet engine backfire, which is very loud," Bulls radio analyst Bill Wennington said Monday on ESPN 1000's "Waddle & Silvy Show." "Sparks fly out of it. It happened actually right after ... the captain thrusts the engines forward and it revs up and starts to go, about three seconds after that you hear a 'Boom!' 'Oh, what was that, are we stopping?' The plane keeps going down [the runway] and you're thinking, 'Oh no, why aren't we stopping?' ESPN.com

Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban 

"It was funny, because we're in the back of the plane, and the engines are right by us, and we hear it. They can't hear it [in the front of the plane]. And apparently they couldn't feel anything. And so we take off fine, and about five minutes later, two more booms, 'Boom!, Boom!,' and a couple people saw flames and sparks and stuff flying out [while looking out of] the window. We're all thinking, 'Well, it's been nice.'" ESPN.com

Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban 

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lent the Bulls the Mavs' plane to fly to San Antonio on Monday night and to return after Wednesday's game. Bulls forward Lou Amundson tweeted his appreciation to Cuban for the lift. "Our plane broke, @mcuban loaned us his, nice guy...," Amundson tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cuban later retweeted it. ESPN.com

Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban 

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lent the Bulls the Mavs' plane to fly to San Antonio on Monday night and to return after Wednesday's game. Bulls forward Lou Amundson tweeted his appreciation to Cuban for the lift. "Our plane broke, @mcuban loaned us his, nice guy...," Amundson tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cuban later retweeted it. Wennington said there was no panic on the plane Saturday. "We turn around, everything was fine, other than that you wouldn't have known -- after the second boom the plane dropped and rattled a little bit -- but other than that you wouldn't have known anything was wrong, and we landed back safely," he said. "There's three engines on the plane, and everything was fine and it worked out, but while it's happening to you up there, and you're looking down and you're 10,000 feet in the air, you're thinking, 'Hmmmm.' "It was amazing how quiet it was. Everyone was pretty serious about it. Everyone remained pretty calm, but you can see a lot of faces of concern and a couple of Hail Marys going up, but other than that, no [panic]." ESPN.com

Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban 

Basketball Hall of Fame forward Dennis Rodman took a lot of heat recently for meeting with controversial North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saw no problem with the two meeting. "Actually I think it’ll help,'' Cuban said before Wednesday's game against the Houston Rockets. "When you've got somebody talking about something other than globally nuclear destruction, that's a step in the right direction because you know there's a topic you can have a conversation about that isn’t thinking about something else. "Just like any argument, when you calm it down by switching subjects, that’s a good thing.'''' Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Dennis Rodman, North Korea, Kim Jong Un 

Cuban isn't sure if anything of substance will become of the meeting between Rodman and Kim. But the fact that Kim is a huge basketball fan apparently says that he can at least relate to Rodman. "Who knows if it has any staying power, but it's certainly not a negative,'' Cuban said. "When I think of world peace I think of Rodman.'' Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Dennis Rodman, North Korea, Kim Jong Un 

A federal judge has denied a request by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to throw out a civil lawsuit accusing him of insider trading. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater issued an order Tuesday rejecting Cuban's request for summary judgment against the Securities and Exchange Commission. ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, Law, Mark Cuban 

Fisher, who's now on Oklahoma City's roster as its third-string point guard, played nine games for the Mavs before the team granted his wish to be waived in late December. Fisher, 38, signed with the Thunder last week, and the Mavs weren't surprised to see the five-time NBA champion resurface with a contender, prompting a roll of the eyes by Mavs players and sarcastic comments from owner Mark Cuban. "I was being open and honest at the time and I'm being open and honest now," Fisher told the Los Angeles Times. "At the time, I felt strong about the decision on a personal level. It wasn't anything about Dallas or Mark that I was not happy about. Just personally, I didn't enjoy being away from my family at the time. "Over the last couple of months, being out of the game and having a chance to reflect on some things and think about some things, when this opportunity presented itself and I thought about the totality of my career, I decided that this was something I deserved to do for myself. Sometimes as a leader, you can't make decisions based on what other people are going to think or how they're going to feel. You just do what you think is right at that time and that's what I'm doing here." ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Derek Fisher, Mark Cuban