The Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban has pulled the plug on a planned weekly NBA basketball show, Mark Cuban's Radio Maverick, for Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI). An ISDN line was to have been installed in Cuban's home so that he could do the show from there. Cuban has received offers to host radio shows before. He's outspoken, inventive, and audacious; the show might have been worth a listen.

Why this decision? He explains his reasons on his popular blog: BlogMaverick. He agreed to the idea of a show only as long as Sirius had a deal with the NBA. Which it does. Basically, Cuban states he felt his presence would enhance the NBA's brand. The show would have paid him nothing; but he likes to help out when he can. "To be a good NBA partner," as he puts it.

Evidently, Cuban recently concluded that the NBA did not share his view, and he decided those two-hours every Sunday would be better spent with his own family. That sounds reasonable, but, as commentators at his blog observed, a piece of the explanation seems missing. Cuban doesn't go into details over how or why he and the NBA don't see eye to eye on this. Well, not precisely on this matter alone, perhaps. Cuban says, "Unfortunately, my partners in the NBA didn't see the value I thought I brought to the league."

According to Art Garcia's column in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cuban is abandoning the show in protest of "a myriad" of NBA management decisions, including a new "code of conduct" for all team owners. The details of the code haven't been made public, but are thought to have been created with Cuban in mind. Cuban has paid over $1.6 million in fines to the organization over the past six years.

Cuban sounds frustrated. On the one hand, the NBA dislikes many of his actions and statements, but always turns to him, hoping to benefit from his and larger-than-life persona to use for marketing and sales purposes, and now he's just plain sick of this hypocrisy. So this is Cuban employing every ounce of leverage against the NBA that he can, with one program on one (still relatively small) subscription radio service caught in the middle.