Mark Cuban is what you may cal a "hands-on" owner of the Mavericks. He goes to every game and most practices. He is often seen shooting baskets with his players during warm-ups. James Dolan is much more "hands-off" with his Knicks.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that Cuban may have a different style than Dolan, but he understands and respects the Knick?s head man and Cablevision chief.

Last month in Dallas, Cuban told a group of New York writers, "If you're not an involved owner, you're an idiot. You live with your [salary-cap] mistakes longer than you live with some spouses." At the time, that remark could have been interpreted as a shot at Dolan.

Cuban elaborated on Dolan?s situation. "If you haven't noticed, the cable industry is going through some challenges right now in the stock market," he said. "I don't blame him at all for focusing on Cablevision. He has a huge, unjust luxury tax bill to pay that impacts [Cablevision's] bottom line. As a shareholder, I want him doing exactly that."

"He has great people [working for him] at the Knicks," Cuban added. "I think [Scott] Layden is a good GM and [Garden president] Steve Mills is doing a great job running the team. Just because the media is impatient doesn't mean they are doing the wrong thing. If I had a company the size of Cablevision to run, it would be impossible to spend as much time on the Mavs as I do."