NBA
Mark Cuban: What Is the Dallas Mavericks Owner Most Famous For?
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterUpdated08 May 2020
Entrepreneur and television personality Mark Cuban has accomplished a lot in his 61 years. So much, in fact, that it’s difficult to identify the source of his greatest notoriety.
A few things Mark Cuban will never be famous for
Mark Cuban has had a successful career in a variety of roles, but there are a few jobs that are highly unlikely to find a place on his resume. You might start that list with president of the United States. Cuban has teased the idea of running for the highest office in the land as an independent, but a coworker doesn’t think that can happen.
Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran says she spoke to Cuban’s wife, Tiffany Stewart, last year on that subject.
“I said to her, ‘Are you going to let Mark run for president?’ and she said, ‘Absolutely not!’” Corcoran recalled. “And I believe her. And that’s what I think the real answer is.”
There are two jobs that most definitely aren’t in his future: NBA commissioner and the owner of a Major League Baseball team.
Cuban has owned the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for two decades and gets fined by the league once every 18 months or so, usually over his criticism of officiating, with the total bill approaching $2 million. While Cuban is valued by the league office and fellow owners for his business acumen, he’s too outspoken to be put in charge the way Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig was handed the MLB reins in 1992.
Speaking of baseball, Cuban probably still would like the idea of owning an MLB team despite his February rant to the contrary after the Houston Astros scandal. But there is no way he’d win the necessary approval from other owners to close on the purchase of a team. Of all the sports in the country, MLB is the one most resistant to allowing an outsider to come in and shake things up.
Mark Cuban built his empire on one brilliant business move
Mark Cuban’s net worth was more than $4 billion by the end of last year, with one venture 25 years ago responsible for much of it.
Cuban formed Audionet in 1995 with two partners and rebranded the company at Broadcast.com three years later. Although it’s commonplace now, streaming live content such as sporting events and music was groundbreaking stuff in those early days of the commercial internet, and Broadcast.com grew rapidly.
Broadcast.com was taken public in 1998, and shares soared immediately from $18 to $62.75. Blessed with great timing, management sold the business to Yahoo! at the peak of the dot-com boom in 1999 for $5.7 billion and Cuban moved on to other ventures, including AXS TV and producing television shows and movies.
He’s been an aggressive venture capital investor over the years, backing businesses that have been sold to the likes of AOL and Akamai.
People know him mostly from sports and reality TV
If there’s one venture most closely associated with Mark Cuban these days, it would have to be his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban bought the NBA team in 2000 for $285 million, and the franchise is now valued at $2.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Cuban attends most home games and many road contests, typically sitting courtside with fans. The Mavericks reached their first NBA championship series in 2006 and won the title over the Miami Heat in 2011.
The combination of Cuban’s reputation as a businessman and visibility as a team owner led to him being brought onboard three-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning show Shark Tank in 2011.
