Will Cuban's nightmare come true?

[jonathanlambert33]

allas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is staying busy these days. He has written his first e-book, "How to Win at the Sport of Business," and he's keeping his TV career relevant with a surprise appearance as co-anchor on a recent "Entertainment Tonight." He hasn't ruled out a second stint on the show to promote his book and other non-sports related projects.

It's the sports-related aspects, after all, that are the real bummer. For one, without an NBA season, who knows if the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant is keeping up his conditioning work on the stair machine outside the Mavs' locker room that he rigorously and religiously attacks prior to every home game?

At any rate, the man his players call "Cubes" needs his non-sports related activities to keep his mind off one worrisome sports-related item -- the growing possibility that his 7-foot franchise forward will suit up for some professional team in Europe. Dirk Nowitzki has told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that he will seek basketball employment overseas soon as the NBA lockout limps closer to a sixth month of basketball inactivity.

"I still can't believe that we're not going to have a season [in the NBA]. I can't see us not playing," Nowitzki told Stein. "But if the lockout still stays strong, I've got a decision to make."

The owner of the first-time NBA champs has been and probably always will be one of the more vocal critics of NBA players participating on national teams during the offseason. Simply, Cuban doesn't want a player he pays millions of dollars to get injured while playing for another team. So, just the thought of Nowitzki shooting one-legged fallaways for Real Madrid or Germany's Bayern Munich surely makes Cuban wig out like Kramer hearing Mary Hart's voice.

It's hard to argue against Cuban.