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

The Mavericks owner has a question for you.

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.

Got a personal question for everyone watching heats vs celts right now. Who is watching on a pirated stream. I'm curious how prevalent it is.

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 30, 2023

The nickname "Narc Cuban" began trending shortly thereafter.

narc cuban https://t.co/LOx6FD00Yc

— Molly Morrison (@mollyhannahm) May 30, 2023

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

this site may be dying but so long as we as a people can come together to tweet “Narc Cuban” at a midrange billionaire the soul still burns

— Alex Navarro (@alex_navarro) May 30, 2023

A few offered an alternate explanation.

everyone's making "narc cuban" jokes, but i choose to believe it's because he actually needs a stream pic.twitter.com/HF0Ul4R57v

— matt (@MattF15) May 30, 2023

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.