Not keepin' it realz

Keepin' it realz, with edge: When Josh Howard made jump shots

Today, you probably opened up your daily Dallas Morning News and watched Tim Cowlishaw pick up a paycheck for penning a column about the Pro Bowl being stupid.

Thanks, Tim. Without the watchdog media out there keeping sporting leagues and teams in check, there'd be mayhem. For years, we'd all operated under the assumption that the Pro Bowl was, in fact, not stupid. Again, thanks.

However, there was a bit of gold in today's edition. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave us all an explanation as to why Josh Howard has sucked ass this season.

No, not injuries or finding a role.

Apparently, the Mavericks have asked Howard to quit being a total fuck up off the court. As in, no drag racing, no public acknowledgement of pot use and no goofball videos with opinions of the national anthem.

This sea change for Howard has severely affected his game.

According to Cuban:

"Josh has worked so hard to be a good teammate and fit in that it's taken a little of the edge off of him. We've asked him to kind of change who he is a little bit, be – for lack of a better word – invisible. People were talking about him off the court. And he's done everything perfectly. He's been the ultimate professional and that sometimes takes an edge off of what happens on the court."

Ok. Surely Cuban doesn't think we're this stupid. Surely. Frankly, I've always considered Cuban the one executive in sports that will tell the fans how it is and not bullshit us with pseudo-psychological crap.

Alas, he's disappointed us all. Cuban is essentially telling us that because Howard has not been able to tell everyone about smoking out or drag racing, he's lost his edge and, thus, his ability to hit open jump shots and battle for lose balls.

What a bunch of assholes. It's a wonder we even care about these people, their teams and their games.