Today, the NBA announced that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban would be fined $500,000 for his comments criticizing the league officials following the loss to Atlanta on Feb. 22. The league also denied the Mavericks formal protest to replay the final 8.4 seconds against the Hawks.

In the NBA’s statement, the league sited “A team owner’s effort to influence refereeing decisions during and after a game creates perception of an unfair competitive advantage and thereby undermines the integrity of the game. Demeaning league employees also creates an intimidating workplace environment.” 

NBA statement: A team owner’s effort to influence refereeing decisions during and after a game creates perception of an unfair competitive advantage and thereby undermines the integrity of the game. Demeaning league employees also creates an intimidating workplace environment. https://t.co/MnqfckjT4z

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 6, 2020

In regard to the petition, the Mavericks filed a protest for their Feb. 22 matchup against the Atlanta Hawks. With 8.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Dorian Finney-Smith blocked a Trae Young layup, which the officials blew the whistle and called a goaltend. Following a review, the call was switched to a clean block by Finney-Smith but the officials counted the John Collins layup, which occurred after the whistle and should have been called off. The Mavericks ended up losing to the Hawks,

In classic Cuban fashion, the irate Mavericks owner took his frustration out on the officials via Twitter after the game and did not hold back at all.

But wait there is more. 1 of the refs told us it was an inadvertent whistle, so it was not goaltending. Doesn't matter that people stopped . They thought the whistle came after the putback. So the basket counted. So what where they reviewing if it wasn't a goaltend ? https://t.co/FPnNy1mRKe

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 23, 2020

This $500K fine is nothing short of foreign to Cuban, who is familiar with forking over a nice chump of change to the league throughout his tenure as Mavericks owner, as he now surpasses the $3 million mark worth of fines and certainly won’t be the last.

Today's fine takes Mark Cuban's career total of publicly known financial penalties from the NBA past the $3 million mark for his 20 years of Dallas Mavericks team ownership

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 6, 2020