Bally Sports Southwest NBA analyst Brian Dameris went viral over the weekend after literally dropping the mic on Los Angeles Clippers star James Harden.
“Listen, James, have you ever had those friends who had bad roommates? Over and over again they complained about their bad roommates. ‘This guy’s terrible.’ They never thought to be self-aware enough that they’re the bad roommate; they’re the problem. Hey, James, YOU’RE the problem,” said the Dallas Mavericks color commentator as part of his rant, which was strong but calm and delivered with factual information.
Despite initially hyping up Dameris’ comments directed at the mercurial NBA star who is now on his fourth team in four years, the regional sports network has since decided to pretend they never happened.
The tweet promoting the video has been deleted and you can no longer find any record of it on Bally Sports Southwest’s website (it still exists in many other places, of course).
Bally Sports Southwest deleted its video (that went viral over the weekend) of a Mavericks analyst explaining why James Harden is a problem because executives felt it went against the network’s values. https://t.co/3BX36I13Cr via @SInow
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) November 13, 2023
What happened? Did the NBA or Clippers complain? Did advertisers get mad? Did Dameris have a change of heart?
Turns out, according to Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina, they decided that the discussion did not meet the values of the Mavericks organization and pulled the plug themselves.
“Sources told me that there was zero outside influence at all,” wrote Traina. “The decision to take down the clip solely came from Bally Sports Southwest executives who felt the clip ‘did not reflect the Mavericks organization.’ Somehow, those at Bally Sports Southwest were not in agreement with Dameris’s “editorializing,” according to a source, because it went against the network’s ‘values.'”
It’s hard to say who, specifically, had the problem with the rant. If it went against the values of the Mavericks, does that imply owner Mark Cuban didn’t like it and wanted it kiboshed? Did it perhaps have something to do with the fact that Harden and the Clippers play on Bally Sports SoCal, creating an awkward conflict of some kind? Or maybe all of the business entities involved just don’t want to see their talent go viral for calling out NBA players, even if what they had to say seemed pretty fair and backed up.
