Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban defended the Los Angeles Lakers after they received and consequently returned a $4.6 million coronavirus relief loan from a federal government program intended to help small businesses. The Mavs owner quickly pivoted to putting blame on the treasury for not putting enough parameters to ensure those really affected by the coronavirus received the aid necessary.
The Lakers chose to return the money after realizing small businesses around the country were still hurting for funds, as the pool went dry after only two weeks.
Cuban argued that setting the limit at 500 employees left too much room for error, giving large companies the relief they don't necessarily need over others in much more dire circumstances:
“The treasury is the one that set the limit to 500 employees, they should have set it to 50 or 100 for the first couple trunches,” Cuban told CNN during a Thursday morning interview. “But they set it to 500 and they knew that companies of 500 or less would get hit badly by the COVID, so why wouldn't they apply?
“Good for the Lakers and other companies, once they recognized that the treasury hadn't allocated, or congress hadn't allocated enough money, to give the money back. This is a moving target and the treasury hasn't done a good job communicating or allocating.”
Mark Cuban blames the Treasury, not the Lakers, for the $4.6 million small business loan they received and returned. pic.twitter.com/XvVPDuPTuw
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 30, 2020
Cuban has several businesses of his own along with the Mavs, and he knows exactly how this pandemic is hurting his product and his employees.
The Lakers were criticized for taking money that could have gone to mom-and-pop shops that are currently struggling without any business, but they simply did what any other business would have done once they met the qualifications.
The treasury chose to shell out a much bigger number for big companies and let small businesses out to dry with a poorly constructed plan. The Lakers could have easily kept the money that was promised to them, but they did the sensible thing by allowing those actually in need to have access to it.
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