"I'm working on which Speedo I want to be wearing (for the NBA Championship trophy presentation)." — Mark Cuban, Dallas owner after his Mavericks led two games to none.

Like commissioner David Stern, a lot of people have reasons (one for each of Cuban's Speedos in some cases) to give thanks for the performance of Miami's Dwyane Wade in the NBA Championships.

A series that did not end swimmingly for the Mavericks or their owner with four consecutive losses.

Ninety percent of the time Cuban is good for a laugh, great for his team and an asset to the NBA.

Then, there's the other 10 percent — these NBA Finals.

That's where he went over the line with his look-at-me tirades and his team, unable to focus on finishing what it started, followed.

Cuban didn't sink the Mavericks alone, of course. Nor, despite his courtside histrionics, did the officials. Wade pretty much took care of that. But Dallas' maverick owner surely didn't do his team or the league any favors in the six-game flameout.

They say that a lot of teams mirror the man in charge. And the Mavericks and their coach might have taken a cue from the one who has been the face of and voice their franchise, Cuban.

Watching their owner go off about the suspension of Jerry Stackhouse, grouse about the officiating and glare at the commissioner sent the message the Mavericks were getting robbed. It unnecessarily became the overriding focus of this series.

The "Cuban Whistle Crisis," as a Washington Post columnist put it, gave the Mavericks an excuse to blame somebody other than the ones they should have been looking at in the mirrors of their palatially appointed locker rooms.

In turning around the franchise he bought six years ago, it almost seems as if Cuban has matched the $285 million purchase in fines dealing with officiating. That's been great for the charities he also rewards. But less so for his team when it most needed him to abide by his pre-Finals promise of, "...wearing a suit and some masking tape across my mouth."

When the Mavericks roared to a 2-0 lead, coach Avery Johnson might have really believed it was going to be a seven-game series. But that wasn't the message Cuban was putting out in word and deed. It wasn't the picture he painted on that David Letterman Show appearance ("No team has ever won those three center home games in a row..."). Or in his blogs and public statements.

At one point, when things began to unravel for the Mavericks, Johnson moved his team out of its South Beach hotel to avoid distractions. But he couldn't very well move his owner off of courtside to, say, Alaska.

Too bad, because then the Mavericks might have had a chance.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.