Cuban: Demographics, safety give NBA advantage over NFL

When it comes to touting the merits of the NBA over its professional sports counterparts, there's no bigger cheerleader than Mark Cuban.

The outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner has delved back into the basketball-versus-football debate, touting the NBA's perceived advantages of its youthful audience and safety concerns of other sports at the grassroots level.

"There’s a confluence of a couple of things," Cuban said, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. "No. 1, our demographic keeps on getting younger. The NFL and baseball, they keep on getting older. And I think what we’re doing with NBA 2K is brilliant. And in the bigger scheme of things in terms of building fans for the future, what do you want your kids to play? I mean, of all the sports out there, do you want to go to a baseball game, or do want to watch your kid play basketball?

"Do you want him to get healthy from running the court, or do you want to watch him play football and worry about collisions."

Cuban also discussed the differences in how the NBA and NFL have handled recent controversies, arguing his league's players are bigger drivers of decision-making. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said he's proud of his players for taking active roles in their communities and speaking out on critical issues.

“I hate to just keep banging on the NFL, but the saturation was a symptom of a bigger problem,” he said. “That’s when I said that pigs get fat, because you see how they handle controversy. They don’t know what to do, and the players can’t really deal with it. Here our players have a big enough voice that if we screw up, our players correct us. ... They can say what’s on their mind, and that has a bigger impact on how fans respond than what (commissioner) Adam Silver says or what I say ...

“I don’t think people realize that talent drives this game. Personalities drive this game. We are the only league where talent comes first, and that’s a critical distinction.”