Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, locked in a verbal sideshow with Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin ever since Saturday's Game 3 of the playoff series against Dallas, apologized to Martin and his mother in his latest posting on his blog.

The billionaire team owner has been accused of calling Martin a "thug" or a "punk," depending on the account, but as Cuban said on the early Tuesday morning posting, "That has become irrelevant."

"I shouldn't have said anything. Now, the reality is that this has gotten out of hand," Cuban wrote on blogmaverick.com, with the posting titled, "An Apology to Kenyon Martin's Mom."

"When tempers and such start impacting the fan experience both in Dallas and Denver, and it requires special security, that's not what I want for Mavs or Nuggets fans. No one takes more abuse and gets more threats on the road than I do. So I know exactly how it feels," Cuban wrote. "I've also had my family and friends spit on at games in this series. So I know how unpleasant that is as well.

"So at this point I would like to apologize to you and your mom, KMart, for my comment. I should have not said anything and I was wrong. Hopefully you will accept the apology and we can move on."

The NBA will take no further action against the Mavs or Cuban for anything that happened over the past few days.

"Mark has apologized on his blog and he will be reaching out to Kenyon

personally," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. "We are confident that this will be brought to an intelligent close with an adult conversation."

The Nuggets weren't happy with how the situation was resolved.

"Obviously we have voiced our concerns regarding the incidents in the stands at last night's game in Dallas with the appropriate people in the league office and have gone through the appropriate channels," Nuggets vice president of player personnel Rex Chapman said Tuesday night. "We take what took place very seriously.

"Kenyon said this morning that he would have hoped that any apology [from Cuban] would have been made in private and in person to his mother and himself. Personally I feel this entire ordeal is a silly and sad commentary. Focus should be on these amazing players, the coaches, and the terrific level of basketball being played on the court by both teams."

The saga started Saturday night in the heated aftermath of Game 3 in Dallas, when the Nuggets benefited from an NBA-acknowledged officiating mistake and beat the Mavericks 106-105 for a 3-0 series lead.

Cuban stalked across the court, blew off steam at the scorer's

table, then headed down a hall leading away from the court. Martin's mother, Lydia

Moore, was wearing a Nuggets jersey and was standing near the base of the

section he walked past, clearly in his view.

According to Cuban, a fan called the Nuggets "thugs," and he looked at Moore and said, "That includes your son."

However, Martin's agent told The Denver Post that Cuban said, "Your son is

a punk."