I might be one of the last sports fan to find out that Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks has a blog. He does. And recently, he wrote an amazing post about what it meant to have to release long-time Maverick, Michael Finley. What he wrote was powerfully personal, self-reflective and fascinating. I cannot remember ever getting such insight into a sports executive’s mindset. The whole entry is worth reading, but this passage particularly struck me:

It’s my fault that we got to this point.

I never should have authorized deals without asking for far more details. I was guilty of being overly optomistic. I wanted to believe that the next deal was the one that was the difference maker. I found ways to rationalize the business side and how i would only be losing a few more dollars and that if it made the difference it was worth it. I enabled a culture where we always thought that if we had assets to trade we could fix a mistake.

I was wrong.

Everything I’ve ever read about Finley is that he’s a great teammate and guy. And I am sure that cutting him was very difficult for Cuban, and thank you to Cuban for sharing that with us.