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Here’s Why ‘Narc Cuban’ Was Trending During Game 7 of Heat-Celtics Series

With the Mavericks having ignominiously bowed out of the NBA playoff race in the final week of the season back in April, Dallas owner Mark Cuban has had a lot of time on his hands.

As it turns out, it has given him time to pose basketball fans a question some of them may not be comfortable answering.

"Got a question for everyone watching Heat vs. Celts right now," Cuban tweeted Monday evening mere minutes into Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. "Who is watching on a pirated stream. I'm curious how prevalent it is."

Predictably enough, fans did not take kindly to this line of inquiry.

The nickname "Narc Cuban" began trending shortly thereafter.

Some hailed the nickname as a manifestation of the spirit of Twitter.

A few offered an alternate explanation.

To answer Cuban's question: A 2017 survey from SMG Insight suggested that 54% of millennials watched illegal streams of live sports. Maybe this is a better way of putting it: enough people apparently stream that Cuban's post was quote-tweeted over 4,000 times in a little under an hour.