March 21, 2007
Sports of The Times
At the Garden, There Are Messages in the Money
By SELENA ROBERTS

One N.B.A. big spender is the son of an automobile upholsterer. He sold garbage bags as a boy to raise money for a pair of Puma sneakers and financed his college years by teaching dance lessons to any clunky, corn-fed Midwesterner with a spare dollar.

Mark Cuban graduated from Indiana University but hardly upgraded from his peanut-butter budget, forced to share a house with a half-dozen guys when he moved to Dallas in the '80s. He left Hoosier hoops behind, or did he? Cuban and his buddy Todd Wagner had a geeky dream: What if they could stream live games over the Internet?

Cuban is a billionaire now - self-made.

The other N.B.A. big spender grew up among the plush estates of Long Island with all the luxury perks of his father's Cablevision monopoly: staffed yachts, catered limos and free HBO.

James L. Dolan strummed a guitar, but needed a worthy hobby. So Daddy Dolan gifted his son with Madison Square Garden. Jim Dolan doesn�t possess brilliant ideas. He has money, which, to him, is as good as intellectual capital.

Dolan is a billionaire - an inherited perch.

Fat cats collided last night. If only in terms of league payroll, Dolan and Cuban were joined at the wallet as the N.B.A.�s fully loaded teams met at the Garden, with the Mavericks breaking free for a 92-77 victory. The Knicks (30-37) lead the league with a $117 million payroll and the Mavericks (55-11) are No. 2 at around $92 million.

Money talks with different messages, though. With his team of past castoffs and foreign risks - including three undrafted players and a certain German who nearly exited as a flop a few years ago - all focused on a championship run, Cuban's payroll is a meritocracy.

With his team of erratic, Starbury-esque superstars - some on the roster, while others have vanished into a buyout abyss - all seeking love pats for mediocrity, Dolan's roster money is rooted in entitlement.

Cuban uses his wealth to forge a vision; Dolan wields it as a tool of vengeance.

Dolan indulged his contrarian muse when he recently extended Isiah Thomas's contract by conveniently measuring him against Larry Brown when his bar should have been Lenny Wilkens. Three years ago, Dolan fired Wilkens, whom Thomas hired, after the Knicks finished the 2003-4 season with 39 wins and a playoff spot. Dolan fumed when the Knicks started the next season at five games below .500, so Wilkens was out.

Dolan's pay scale slides on a whim. Dolan celebrated Thomas for a sub-.500 record and a possible cameo spot in the playoffs. The Knicks are 1-3 since the extension was announced.

It�s not that Thomas deserved no consideration, but why would Dolan deliver a judgment so soon? Because he wanted to use his money as a bully stick, as an in-your-face response to skeptics. Dolan is an emotional spender, an investor in fool's gold. The Mavericks earn every amenity, every dime, with results.

"We don't work off of pedigree," Cuban said last night. "I've tried to set the tone by saying, if we need a free-throw coach, we'll get a free-throw coach. If we need a sports psychologist, we'll get a sports psychologist. If we need someone to teach you to dribble with your toes, we'll do it. It's just so there are no excuses. The guys we bring in recognize that and really, really work at their game."

In the off-season, after his team's journey to the finals, Cuban rightly rewarded Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry with $160 million in contracts to maintain the soul of the Mavericks.

He also extended Coach Avery Johnson's contract with a $20 million thank-you for his skill and work ethic, the same qualities that defined Johnson's unlikely N.B.A. career.

"Avery knows what it's like to be the 15th guy on the roster; he knows what it's like to be cut on Christmas Day," Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks' president, said in a telephone interview, adding, "It's like starting a company and being the stock boy and working your way up and knowing every position, from the guy who empties the trash cans to the foreman to an executive, versus a guy who steps in as a made man, as a C.E.O. of a company."

So Johnson is a lot like Cuban. Different experiences, same self-made character. The Mavericks stand as a mirror to Cuban, all people of their own invention.

"It's like the Island of Misfit Toys," Nelson said. "We have all these guys who have had these mountaintop, soul-searching situations. They were at the bottom of their barrel and they picked themselves up by the bootstraps."

Dolan didn't need bootstraps. He grew up Gucci. As Sports Illustrated reported last month, Dolan once broke out into song at a corporate outing that included this verse:

"We'll have some fun. As long as you remember: I'm Chuck Do-lan's son!"

The son of Charles Dolan was missing last night. Usually, he sits impassively on the Knicks' baseline, but he has been known to berate an employee for serving stale Diet Coke.

The son of an auto upholsterer was in a T-shirt and jeans behind his team's bench. Cuban will scream at officials, but he respects the employees under his roof.

Cuban versus Dolan, billionaire versus billionaire, meritocracy versus entitlement. The reflection of each man is in the standings.