Mark Cuban - The Billionaire next door

Mark Cuban is a larger than life public figure, but in person he is just like the guy next door. Mark has had lots of business successes, the biggest was Broadcast.com which he sold to Yahoo back in 1999 for $5.7 Billion. The smartest move was selling his Yahoo stock before the stock market bubble burst in 2000.

Mark writes the very popular Blog Maverick, and is now best known as the owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks. Very appropriate since maverick is a good description of Mark Cuban. His new big thing is HDNet, a new High Definition TV network, and IceRocket, a blog search engine.

I had a chance to talk to Mark at a recent Celtics - Mavericks game. The Mavericks won of course.

This is a picture of my two sons, Derek and Darren with Mark. Just to give you an idea my sons are both 6'-1" and 175 pounds, so Mark is a big dude.

I followed up with a few questions on sports and business. Here is Mark live and uncut.

1.       You are very involved with the Mavericks, attending home and away games, sitting behind the bench, and going into the locker room at half time. How do you balance being supportive versus micro managing the team?

I know where I add value, where I don't, and the value of saying nothing and just observing.

2.       George Steinbrenner (Yankees) and Jerry Jones (Cowboys) are very involved too yet the fans don’t seem to admire them in the same way. Why do you think the Mavericks fans are so supportive?

Don't know, don't care. I approach all my businsses the exact same way.

3.       The fans love you everywhere you go. I noticed Boston fans constantly asking for your autograph and taking pictures. They don’t do that with other owners, in fact I have never seen the Celtics owner sign autographs. Most owners sit up in the sky boxes and never see the fans. Have you ever had any bad experiences with hecklers?

I get heckled all the time. Its no problem, better me than the players. And as far as the autographs, the fans are my customers, no matter what the arena.  They pay the bills, I'm happy to sign as many autographs as I can.

4.       The Chicago Cubs are up for sale. Have you ever considered buying another sports franchise? Are you interested in the Cubs?

No comment.

5.       It seems like the two biggest issues in professional sports are collective bargaining agreements with the players, and advertising contracts with the TV networks. As an individual owner how much control do you have over those issues?

Not as much as I probably should. In the NBA the owners have the chance to discuss issues, but a negligible opportunity to impact issues.

6.       Was letting Steve Nash go the toughest decision you have ever made in sports? Any regrets?

No and no. Steve made the choice to leave. The suns were smart enough to recognize the value he would have in their new run and gun system. There were several teams with cap room that could have offered more and didn't.

The bigger issue is that I think Steve is a great guy. I wish him all the best, but its been 3 years. I'm long past it.

7.       How about business? How do you split your time between HDNet, IceRocket, the Mavericks, and your other business interests?

Its 70pct hdnet,10pct the internet biz, icerocket, filesanywhere.com, goowy.com and the rest Mavs.

8.       How do you find time to blog? I noticed you posted a blog on the Friday night of the Celtics game after 11:00PM. It was about the Cablevision DRM suit. Is it easy for you to go from arguing with referees to arguing legal concepts?

Very easy. I spend more time thinking about technology than basketball. I have great people at the mavs and we all know what we bring to the table and what our interdependencies are. So its easy to switch gears.

9.   Is this the Mavericks year to win the championship? Which teams do you fear most?

I hope so. We don't fear any team.

Good luck, Mark! The Mavericks almost won the championship last year. This year they have the best record in the league and should win another trip to The Finals. Go Mavs!

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Comments

[Steve Morsa]

Mark's a smart, intelligent guy...and we all would do well to hold on to one of the most important and prescient statements I've ever heard..."I know where I add value, where I don't, and the value of saying nothing and just observing."

Oh that more people in business would take such words to heart.

If he believed in pride...Kwai Chang Caine would indeed be proud.

[Lloyd Budd]

"Steve made the choice to leave." From what I have heard, you, Mark Cuban make the choice not to sign him for a long term deal or to match the Phoenix Suns offer. Is that wrong?

[Paul King]

Many years ago when I was pretty active and trying to make a name for myself in the ideas of technology (think tank style - something I've long since given up) I would get a chance to talk to Mark from time to time. He is exactly as you descibe him, and exactly as he comes across on his blog - he's nothing if not straight forward.

At the time (and apparently even still today) his HDNet was his main concern, and his main concern with that was content. He bought Rysher Entertainment which owned all the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" shows, thinking with a company such as that, he would have content... he later found out that it was cost prohibative to transfer all the old shows (done on tapes) into a digital medium. I don't know if he ever talked about it publicly, I'm sure he has, but I remember thinking how impressed I was that he shrugged it off as a lesson learned. Years later Rysher had a huge hit with "Sex in the City".

I'm sure the Mavs will soon.

[Lloyd Budd]

In the most recent issue of Playboy, I hear there is an article with Steve Nash that really tells his departure from the Mav like it was -- again, not the Cuban version.