Cuban softens stance: If Westbrook isn't a superstar, he's closest thing to it

When you watch a soon-to-be six-time All-Star rack up 21 triple-doubles in a season before the end of January, it's probably time to concede that player is a superstar. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn't go quite that far regarding Russell Westbrook on Friday, but it sounds like the talkative billionaire is softening his stance.

"If he's not a superstar, he's the closest thing to it," Cuban said of Westbrook to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

These are baby steps for Cuban, who said while his team was being eliminated by Westbrook's Oklahoma City Thunder during last spring's playoffs, that the explosive guard was in fact "not a superstar." He then doubled down on that position in December, saying that he stood by his definition.

The "superstar" debate was noteworthy because it produced one of the last tender public moments between Westbrook and Kevin Durant, when the latter came to his now-estranged friend's defense by calling Cuban an "idiot" three times.