FanHouse

I'd like to be a fly on the wall of Mark Cuban's office when he got the email/call/David Stern Yoda-like hologram message that he would be allowing bloggers back into the Mavericks locker room, regardless of whether he likes it or not.

As you of course know, Cubes kicked Dallas Morning News blogger Tim MacMahon out of the locker room, and there was some discussion as to whether or not the ban might have been a little bit personal; Cuban chalked it up an attempt to make sure all bloggers, as in the one's without the press credentials, got an even shake on access to professional basketball teams. There may be a reason he used that logic too, assuming he expected this news from the NBA.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who contended the team's locker room was not large enough to accommodate all bloggers, accepted the league's edict but added a caveat. Via e-mail, Cuban said the Mavericks will open their locker room to all credentialed bloggers, regardless of affiliation. Mavericks credentials are issued by the team.

Cuban indicated he believes bloggers should be treated equally, regardless of affiliation.

'Which means we will encourage all bloggers to apply, whether they be someone on blogspot who has been posting for a couple weeks, kids blogging for their middle school Web site or those that work for big companies,' wrote Cuban, a blogger himself. 'We won't discriminate at all.'

Sweet, glorious anarchy. I can't tell if this is Cuban making a moralistic stand or if the Dirk Nowitzki-less Mavericks are just in such a free fall that Cuban is just trying to set the ship on fire before it finishes sinking into the water.Of course, the potential bedlam that could ensue from letting anyone with a laptop into the locker room will be somewhat regulated -- Cuban stated that "all bloggers come in as a group after credentialed media" -- which, well, is kind of the same thing as before, only now it's just segregation instead of an outright ban. And yeah, we probably have not heard the last of this issue.