Mark Cuban apologizes for homophobic remark at Boston's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

In a lengthy blog post published this afternoon, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban apologized for a homophobic remark -- first reported by the Phoenix on Wednesday -- that he made over the weekend at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. (I also tweeted about the remark when Cuban made it.) As I mentioned on Wednesday, the comment came during on on-stage interview with ESPN's Bill Simmons. Though the interview was being recorded for Simmons' BS Report, the offending remark was edited out of the podcast version of the interview. 

On Wednesday, I questioned whether ESPN was brushing the remark under the rug by editing it out of the podcast without comment, and called on Cuban to apologize. 

Earlier today, Dan Devine on Yahoo! Sports's Ball Don't Lie blog reiterated that argument, and Deadspin posted grainy audience-recorded audio of the exchange that was deleted from the podcast. 

Those two high-profile echoes likely had a lot to do with Cuban's apology, which is worth a read in full, because it's remarkably not full of shit: he apologizes fully and without equivocation. Published under the headline, "Am I a homophobe?," Cuban begins by saying, "I try not to be." He then admits that the remark he made was "totally sophomoric" and that he "made a mistake in making the comment." He continues:

This blog post is not about trying  to defend what I said. I’m not trying to defend my sense of humor. I’m not trying to convince you I’m not a homophobe. I’m not trying to justify anything at all.

I guess what I am doing is admitting that at some level I am prejudiced and that I recognize that I am .  There are a lot of things in my life that I need to improve at. This is one of them. Sometimes I make stupid throw away comments that I quickly realize are wrong. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. It was a mistake and I realized it. I learned from it.

He goes on to apologize for punching a fat kid in the stomach in 6th grade. 

However, he refuses to apologize for picking on people who do stupid stuff in the stands at NBA games, which seems fair enough: "I’m happy to pick on you if you like doing The Wave. I’m happy to pick on you for a lot of reasons," he writes, adding: "Your sexuality should never be one of those reasons."