The key question is why. Why would an NBA owner make remarks about the Kobe Bryant trial that can only damage his league’s credibility in the eyes of decent people everywhere? Why, Mark Cuban, why?

Because he applies the same theory to himself that he does to Bryant: Any publicity is good publicity. No owner in sports can match P.T. Cuban in promotional creativity and nerve. Unfortunately, Cuban often promotes himself at the expense of his league.

Cuban, the self-made billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks, badly wants to be as famous as any of the star players he gets to travel and hang out with or the Hollywood stars he gets to party with. For Cuban, getting interviewed by Pat O’Brien on “Access Hollywood” probably carries more status than any of the usual sports platforms. Been there with Costas, done that with Gumbel.

For “Access Hollywood,” Cuban wanted to sound really hip and cool — to come off as defiantly plugged-in as he would if he and O’Brien were having Cuban cigars at his Dallas mansion. Yes, Cuban is the one NBA owner who will tell the dreaded truth, no matter how much the commissioner fines him. To many fans, Cuban is the anti-establishment anti-hero. To date, he has gladly paid more than $1 million in fines. You could call it his self-promotion budget.

When Cuban was asked on “Access Hollywood” about Bryant’s sexual assault trial, he told O’Brien: “From a business perspective, it’s great for the NBA. It’s reality television, people love train-wreck television and you hate to admit it, that is the truth, that is the reality today.”

Yes, America can’t take its eyes off the emotional train wrecks of the rich or the briefly famous. Cuban probably wishes he had thought of — and invested in — “The Anna Nicole Show.” But what does that have to do with a sexual assault trial involving Kobe Bryant, who until recently was considered perhaps the NBA’s cleanest-cut star and a model husband and father?

At some point, Cuban could have a point. If Bryant is acquitted, his marketing appeal and that of his Los Angeles Lakers and perhaps his league could benefit from the cable-crazed attention this trial will get. No doubt millions of non-sports fans couldn’t have picked Bryant out of a basketball lineup. The Colorado judge who processed the warrant for his arrest said he wasn’t sure Bryant played basketball. He is now.

But for now, Bryant stands accused of a terrible crime. Is Cuban so plugged-in that he knows beyond doubt what happened that night in Bryant’s hotel room? Please.

At best such shoot-from-the-lip insensitivity from an NBA owner is premature. At worst it trivializes a sexual assault charge.

Cuban apparently presumes Bryant is innocent or that there’s no way he’ll do any time. But Kobe Bryant in prison would not be good for business. Bryant on probation couldn’t help the NBA’s long-term popularity. His admission of adultery has already cost him one endorsement deal, with the makers of Nutella chocolate spread.

Cuban should take a hard look at how the NBA fell on hard times in the late ’70s, when the league was seen as a haven for malcontents and drug thugs. Many fans — especially parents — still want to buy the athlete-as-role-model fantasy, yet here is an owner, P.T. Cuban, biting the hand that pays him. He’s basically saying: “You won’t be able to help yourself. You’ll be more fascinated than ever with a star once accused of rape.”