Club Shay Shay - Mark Cuban

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

In this episode of Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe sits down with billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban for a wide-ranging discussion that covers everything from basketball to the future of media. Cuban opens up about the Mavericks’ offseason moves, particularly the high-profile acquisition of Klay Thompson. He shares how Mavericks GM Nico Harrison, Kyrie Irving, and coach Jason Kidd played pivotal roles in convincing Klay to join Dallas, despite his strong ties to the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Cuban emphasizes Klay’s hunger to prove himself after a tough season with the Warriors, aligning with the Mavericks' strategy of recruiting players with something to prove. Cuban also dives into the growing on-court chemistry between Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, explaining how their contrasting playing styles are starting to mesh. He talks about the adjustments the Mavericks are making after their playoff struggles, especially their series loss to the Boston Celtics, and what it will take to compete at the highest level going forward. In addition to basketball, Cuban offers insights into Kyrie Irving's misunderstood public image. He shares how getting to know Kyrie off the court gave him a new perspective on the star's big heart, love for community, and dedication to making a positive impact.Cuban highlights Kyrie's growth and maturity as key factors in his success with the Mavericks. Cuban also discusses Shark Tank, his investments, and early career in tech, recalling the founding of Broadcast.com and how he foresaw the streaming revolution long before Netflix and YouTube changed the game. He touches on the future of media, the survival of traditional TV thanks to live sports, and the growing battle between networks and streaming platforms for control over sports broadcasting rights. The conversation turns candid as Cuban offers personal finance advice for athletes, warning against risky ventures like investing in restaurants or music labels. He emphasizes the importance of financial discipline and hiring professionals rather than relying on friends to manage wealth. Tune in for Mark Cuban's honest take on building a championship contender, the media landscape, and what it takes to thrive in both business and sports ownership. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Or how the best in the sport are taking those skills to elevate women's sports to a whole new level? I'm Tiffany Oshinsky, host of League One Volleyball's podcast, Serving Pancakes. Get ready for some unfiltered analysis and authentic conversations about the sport itself and what it takes to stand on the podium. I'll be joined by top athletes and figureheads in sports as we dive deep into match play, mindset,

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Literally, people come on and think it's real? Yeah. I'm rich as f**k. I'm Jewish. Nobody asks me to join any of them secret societies, right? Nobody. I'm like, hello? Can I at least get an invite to a cocktail party? I'm your host, Shani Sharpe. I've been grinding all my life. Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Cheche.

I am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proprietor of Club Cheche. The guy that's stopping by for conversation and a drink today is one of America's most famous and successful entrepreneurs. He created the world's first streaming platform. He's one of the top 10 Wall Street trades of all time. He's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest single e-trade transaction. One of the most influential people in cable and sports industry.

Self-made multi-billionaire, savvy entrepreneur, internet pioneer, genius financier, highly respected businessman, a celebrated sports owner. He helped the Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA title in 2011. Prime time television star, he was a shark on the award winning TV show, Shark Tank, as an executive producer for Academy Award winning movies, bestselling author, avid philanthropist, humanitarian, and mogul. Here he is ladies and gentlemen, Mark Cuban.

What's up Shay, I love that intro man. When you hear all those things, you like, damn. I know, I was like, no more, enough, enough, enough. You're damn I know I'm like no more Just tell me I'm old that's all you drink mark. Yeah, do I drink? Yes. Okay. Well, you know, hey, this is my own cognac It's called shaved by La Portilla. Uh-huh. You know what think about cognac a little bit, but I'm a sipper, right? I'm not like yeah, I ain't expecting you to take this into the dome I didn't say I'd never have I'm just saying Thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate you.

So much for being a sipper. Yeah, it was just a tiny one. So let's get right into it. Your big acquisition this off season was Klay Thompson. Yeah. Obviously, you got Luca. We know what Luca is. You have Kyrie, a guy that can take, make big shots, tremendous handles. How were you able to convince Klay to come to Dallas when his dad wanted him to go to LA? He grew up as a Lakers fan. Kobe was his idol. How did you convince him, join us in Dallas? I mean, credit goes to Nico and Kyrie. NJ Kid, right? They know him, they've played with him, they understand him, and that's literally why we brought Nico Harrison in,

because of his relationships with players. And so they went out and spent time with him, got to know him better, and really, and I think Clay was ready for a move, right? All the grief he got last year, particularly the way it ended. So the timing was right, and kudos to Clay for being willing to make the move and kudos to Nico J Kidd and Kai for making it

happen. Is it hard to convince players when they've had such success in one locale and they've been there for an extended period of time and that's their identity they're known he's always gonna be known as a warrior no matter what happens if they win a title here he'll still be known as a warrior. Is it really hard to convince players to join a new franchise when they've been associated with one franchise for so long depends if they're the number one guy or number two guy or number three guy okay right if you're number one like stef's not going anywhere right you could understand you know now the bronze moved around just for different reasons but um the the number two guy if

if it's not going the way you want, then yeah, the door is open. But it takes somebody who's special, somebody who's got the confidence in themselves, somebody who's got the ambition, and somebody who really has got something to prove. And Clay's got a lot to prove, which is great, because those are the kind of guys you want on your squad,

because they're gonna work harder than ever to prove people wrong. You come off one of your best seasons. Since you won the NBA title, you get to the NBA finals. Luka had an outstanding year. I think he finished top three in the MVP. Kyrie was sensational. Why weren't you guys able to get over that hump against the Boston Celtics?

You lose that series 4-1. Celtics are good. They were very good. Right? I mean, they didn't have a lot of weaknesses. And so, and in order to beat them, we had to make a lot of threes, and we just didn't. You know, our three-point shooting wasn't up to par where it was during the playoffs of the regular season.

We couldn't get stops like we needed to. And we couldn't get the rim to the rim the way we needed to. When Jaylen Brown is blocking shots at the rim and being a ribbon protector, you know it's not your day. So know credit to them but you know adding Clay adding Najee I mean we got better. Right. You are this the following the previous offseason you added Kyrie you you know you trade make the trade for him but you signed him re-signed him in free agency. How would you how did you know that he and Luca would play to play so well together because Luca needs the ball Kyrie needs the ball to do any stuff, but he can play off the ball.

How did you know that they'll work together? Because they're both basketball savants, right? They understand the game, they know how to play, they know what it takes to win, they complement each other in a lot of ways. You know, Luca's big, strong, not so quick, Kyrie's quick, handles. I mean, they both got handles, right? Out of the world handles, but just plays the game a little differently. And when you have a back court

that can complement each other and both are willing to let the other guy lead when the time is right, that's when it's gonna work. Like when we first traded for them, they couldn't figure each other out because they hadn't had a preseason together. And then, you know, last year, it took a little time. I mean, we didn't get it right at the beginning, but by the end of the year, they were playing

off each other great. And it was like, because, you know, Luko just loves to start a game by taking over. And then Kai is fourth quarter Kai, right? And if Kai is rolling, Luka's like, here you go. And if Kai's not rolling, he goes, give me the ball, it's my turn, right? And when they got that respect and that relationship, that's when everything changed. But you know Kyrie had a history of what transpired.

I mean, Cleveland, and then it was Boston, and then it worked out with the Nats. So how do you deal with a player that it might not have worked out over here, it might not have worked out over there, it might not have worked out over there. But you know what? I believe in this player, and it's going to work out over here. How do you assess that, Mark? You talk to

them and you talk to people around them. You watch what happens, how their actions are. When you watch Kyrie, before he came to the Mavsie, when you watch Kyrie after the game, you know, you see him in football, right? Those guys who'll swap jerseys, slap each other right and walk out the door and never talk to each other again. Kyrie is one of those guys like he's gonna hug you. Embrace him. Yeah, he's gonna hug you like he's known you for 20 years and you guys are first cousins. Yes. Right?

And that says something when guys are getting that close to each other. And so when you talk to players, they loved them. Yes. Nobody had a bad word to say about Kyrie that ever stepped on the court. And so to me, that was all we needed to know. And then from there, all the things you said, well, okay, what went wrong in Boston? What went wrong in Brooklyn? A lot of that is maturity, right?

But a lot of it was circumstances too, right? How often is COVID going to hit? You know, and lead to those circumstances. And what we learned was you just let Ky be Ky. You know, and I love talking to the guy. And I say this all the time, like, you know, if you go back to your college days and you're sitting in the dorm and you're hanging out with friends, there's a couple guys that just want to get trashed, right?

There's a couple guys that want to get trashed and talk about girls, right? And then you all are talking about sports. Kai's the dude that's sitting there wanting to talk about world peace. Okay. Right? Why aren't we fixing this? You know, how do we end hunger? He's just got that, he's got a heart of gold,

he's got a huge heart, and he wants to help people. Even if you look at his social media, it's about his tribe. It's about the people around him and how he can lift people up, his community. Once we saw that, to me, it was easy to make that decision. When you hear people like, man, they're misunderstood. What was your perception of Kyrie before you actually got around Kyrie and found out what type of genuine person that is? Honestly, before I did the work, I thought he was a team killer. Okay.

Right? I was just like, because I'd never taught you, there was no point, there was no reason for me to talk to people about him. Right? It's just like, hey, if he doesn't want to play when the Mavs come to town, great, right? Things don't work out on another team, great. But when the opportunity to trade for him came, it's like, okay, let's do the work. And Nico did the work, J. Kid knew him, Nico knew him for years, and it was like, okay,

let me talk to folks, and everybody loved him. And so then you looked at the organizations he was at, and you know. That didn't help the situation. Yeah, Right. And so, I mean, I knew all these owners, right? And I knew the circumstances and and so, you know, it it wasn't a hard decision. Right. What when you sit down and talk to Kai and you mentioned it earlier, like you look at the social media feed and he's talking about things that normal guys his age probably not talking

about but when he got dropped by some of these major sponsors, what did you share with him? I was like, can I help? And obviously, when it comes to shoes, which is big money off court, we got Nico Harrison right there, right? And so Nico gave him a lot of guidance and support. He had talked to him and worked with him at Nike.

So Nico was great. And I talked to Kai about business, and he was just like, Mark, I just want to be myself, lead the way I want to lead and be creative. And he found a great deal, right? And he's been making it work. You notice the deals he signed since he came to us. There's no problems, right? There's no issues because we just let Kai be Kai. And when you do that, good things happen. Right.

Now, is it true that when Yannis was a free agent, did you want to try and, because I'm reading out, it says like you passed on Yannis. No, okay, two different things, right? So when Yannis was getting drafted. Right. That's when you passed. That's when we passed, right?

Because we had Dirk, and this was like 2012, I think it was, or 2013, and we just won the championship two years ago. And so some of our people wanted to go for Giannis. I wanted to trade down and we ended up getting Shane Larkin, not because so much of Shane who could play, but we needed that cap room to go out and try to sign somebody to propel Dirk.

We wanted to go for the goal to get another one. Right, we wanted to get another one. So, you know, but it's just the way it worked out. And had we gotten Giannis, we'd never gotten Luca. Wow. Yeah. So how do you make, how do you do that, Mark? Because you're like, okay, there's this guy here, and we have a superstar already on the

team and we're trying to maximize because he's not going to play another 10 years. Right. So we want to maximize this. So how do you really determine because you look at y'all like, damn, if we don't have you Luke. But remember, remember, so Yon is coming out there were like, I vividly remember there were two VHS tapes of him playing in the Greek league. That was all they had to show me. You know, like the old school tapes, if you went into a yard sale, right, and you find these tapes, you know, when it's got lines and everything, and it looks like someone's mom shot it,

that's what it was, right? And look, he got drafted at 13, I think, or something like that. And so, you know, it wasn't like every other team knew about it either. But, you know, you have to respect Dirk. You have to respect what he's done for us. And I already know, like, Dirk, if we had just, you know, instead of going forward in

free agency, if we had just said, okay, this rookie is going to be great, it would be like, what a shit show. With all love, right? Because Dirk's all love. But, you know, so, you know, just out of respect to Dirk, it was my final decision. And we went forward and we didn't get the free agents we wanted but that was the plan Does the book have the book always stopped on mark cubans? Yes got you right? It was my team You know it was my responsibility my final decisions for better or worse

Right because I heard Jerry say Jerry says no one can run the Cowboys better than I can as a GM. Is that how you feel? No, there's probably a lot of people who can run it better. Obviously, someone's going to get the chance now. But Jerry, you know, Jerry and I had a difference between us is Jerry saw the whole thing as a business. Right. Right.

And when he talks about running this thing as a business and as a football team, he's right. Right. And they've gotten 12 and 5 like three straight years, right. So it's not like they suck. Right. You know how hard it is to get over the home. Absolutely. Right. It takes some luck and it, you know, you're playing against my homes, who's like the Michael Jordan in some respects of quarterbacks, you know, then it was Brady before him, right. And so I'm not disagreeing with Jerry. I just think you got to give more credit to luck because luck has more impact than probably anything I could do or anything Jerry can do.

So have you had conversations with Jerry about, with Jerry, I don't know, maybe you let, you know, let such and such, maybe it's a different eye. I've had conversations with him in the past, but not about players, right? Because I don't know shit about football players. I mean, I got my own fantasy football stuff. My son Jake is just all about fantasy football, right? But yeah, you've got to live it to make those kind of decisions. But I've talked to him in the past about coaching decisions and stuff, but that was probably

10 years ago. Okay. This is Michael Finley, Grant Williams, they tell the story, but I want to get to Luca. I believe if Luca were to like train in the off season, get himself in tip top shape, I don't think Luca realized he's great. I'm talking about he's transcending, he's historically great, but I don't think Luca realized how great he can be. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, look, we all mature as we get older, right? And this going into a sixth year, he learned what it takes to get to the finals for the first time. And that tells you a lot. It's like with Dirk. When we lost in 2006 in the finals to Miami, Dirk's attitude changed completely. Yeah, Dirk just became a different human in terms of preparation.

I mean, literally like no alcohol during the season, which wasn't how it used to be. Trust me. No sweets, no fried food during the season, just complete about face on how he approached his profession. And Luca's smart like that too. Now, you know, I haven't talked to him this off season about all that kind of stuff.

What about the hookah? What's that? What about the hookah? Hey, let me just tell you this. I know one guy who's about seven foot and it is a hall of famer who introduced me to hookah. Right, the one time I've tried it and he ain't slowing down and he's like 37.

So I'm not gonna judge there. Okay. What do you think about hookah? I have never tried it. Yo, you never have? And he ain't slowing down. And he's like 37. So I'm not going to judge there. OK. What do you think about hookah? I have never tried it. Yo, you never have? I've done it once. Twice. Twice.

You like it? Nah. No, if I've only done it twice, that tells you right here. So tell us the story about Grant Williams. You signed him in Fridges from the Celtics. And I guess Michael Phelan tells the story that he's trash talking hookah in Yeah, were you there that day? I wasn't there that day, but I heard all the stories obviously so what so what happened to the best?

What were you what was relayed to you? Oh, you know Grant? Grant was trying to define himself grants a great guy right I still keep in touch with him I like him a lot and he was trying to define his role with the Mavericks You know, he wasn't going to be the best player But he was going to be a role player the Mavericks. You know, he wasn't going to be the best player, but he was going to be a role player that had to fit in, make threes, but he was kind of like the enforcer. And he also wanted to be kind of the adult on the court. You know, and with Luca, it just didn't go over well at all.

When you start trash-talking Luca, that's never going to end well. Like, if I've trash talked him like in fun, he gives me the stink eye. You are not doing that to Luca, and Grant found out the hard way. How did Dirk, when you said, because I think you said, Luca's going into his sixth season. Dirk played 20 seasons with you, the only franchise

that he's ever played with. You say, yeah, right now, Lucas is the best player. You really believe that right now that he's a better player than Dirk's ever been? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Dirk, remember, the league has changed. And Dirk, the skills he brought, and even more than his skills, the mindset. Dirk is mentally tougher than any human I've ever met in my life.

Whether it's dealing with pain, because you know better than anybody, right? It's what you do off the court. Correct. What you do off the field, that's more, that defines what you do. If you don't do it off, mentally, physically, intellectually, right?

Learning all the things you need to do, your football IQ, your basketball IQ, doesn't matter how talented you are. We've both seen talented guys just going right through a flame out in a minute. And so, Dirk had that mindset that was stronger than maybe anybody other than Michael Jordan. And that's, Luca on the other hand,

in terms of actual skill and killer instinct, Luca can handle the ball. Dirk needed somebody to get him the ball. That's the only reason, right? If Dirk came out now, right, and he'd have the skills and the handles, right? Because, you know, like kids today, they watch on Instagram, they watch on TikTok,

all the drills and all the handles, and they see Steph and they see Luca and Kyrie, and so they all end up meeting. Dirk would have been out with all those handles and that'd have been unfair a whole different so basically been Kevin Durant before Kevin Durant for sure Kevin Durant got handles that could shoot the ball they're seven foot tall can shoot the ball like dirt so basically exactly yeah it'd be KD before KD he would have been right and and then some um and that's no disrespect to KD right who was that first person to give me that hookah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I don't know how soon, probably because of the way it's going, that we're going to see an NBA player with a billion dollar contract?

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. A billion mark? Yeah, but I mean, that presumes that TV keeps on going up the way it is. But you're going to see $100 million a year here shortly. Wow. Because if the TV contract has 10% increases in the cap, the way the CBA works, right? And you saw Steph, you know, had 62 million for one year.

Yeah. Right? I mean, when Luca and Tatum and all these guys, man, they're young. Tatum just got what? Like 400? Something's. So Luca's about to get.

A lot. A lot. And it's going to go crazier, like this year, this coming year is still old CBA, old TV money, right? Once that new TV money kicks in, like, they'll be making more money a year than I will. These guys are gonna be making, like, I don't care how many billions you have,

like, I don't have a real job, right? You know, and so I'm not making a hundred million dollars every year, right? You're gonna have players making more than the owners. Wow. And that's okay, right? There is no league without them, right? That's what makes basketball, the NBA, different than every other sport, right? You know, you couldn't recognize 50 of 53 guys on an NFL roster if they walked in the

door, right? Right. NBA, right, particularly if you play 2K, you knew all 15 guys and the two-way guys too. Yes. Right, and that's unique. You don't have that in baseball, you don't have that in soccer, you have, or the NHL, that's unique.

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Let's go back to that. I read a quote probably about I was probably 22, 23. They say a genius sees things that no one else sees and hits the bullseye. The streaming platform, Mark, how could you have foreshadowed this is where it's heading? Yeah, it was easy actually. I mean, it made perfect sense to me. I'd been in the technology business for a long time, right? And my buddy Todd, and actually the building we started in was next door there, two doors down.

And we're like, look, this internet stuff, there's going to be multimedia at some point, right? Let's start with audio and eventually it'll get to video. And we're like, okay okay is anybody else doing this? No, okay Let me buy a computer I bought another computer put in the second bedroom my house and I was like Let's just grind it out and we started going to every radio station every sports league like We just got all the rights and locked them up

We were YouTube before YouTube and and really it it was hard to do But in hindsight, I was shocked no one else had done it before. Wow and you look back at it so when you sold that first company you're like did you like damn that was that was that was easy do you do you start a company with the hopes of selling it? No never right I always start a company with the hopes of fucking things up, right? And trying to disrupt things.

So I remember when we started, it was audio net before it was broadcast.com, and people were like, well, what's the mission? What's your personal goal? And I'm like, I want to be the next Ted Turner, because Ted Turner had TBS, right? Started CNN, right? And then he was doing the doing um the racing the yacht racing or whatever the world yeah well no no what was the America's Cup America's Cup right and something like that but in any event and he has

champagne everywhere he has hot girls everywhere right and he's like managing the Braves what he wanted to I'm like on, that's what I want to be, right? I want to have fun. And so the goal, though, was to see if we can turn this thing and actually at some point in time, replace television. And it happened slower than we expected, but it's happening now. And that was the vision. Is linear? Well, because it seems like people just like go linear for live sporting events. It's like everything else is kind of like the Netflix, the Amazon, the Tubi's, all that linear well because it seems like people just like go linear for live sporting events is that everything else is kind of like the Netflix the Amazon is the two bees that all that other stuff is on like streaming platform is that where we're so in the next five to 10 years

mark where are we going to be that's where we're going to be right because linear television is struggling you know you know you know you know ESPN used to have 110, 120, 110 million subscribers. Now they're down in the 70s or something like that. And that's changed, right? You know this industry well, right? And it's harder even for Fox Sports and those guys. And so the money's just not going to be there. It used to be like there was a time where it was like, okay, what's on?

What are the new shows on ABC, CBS and NBC? Right? And you were- You said you'd watch TV. You set your clock like, okay, what's on? What are the new shows on ABC CBS and NBC? Right? And you were said to be most watch watch TV. You set your clock like now. I'm gonna watch friends Right gonna watch everybody loves Raymond or all the whatever charge and shark shark tech. Yeah Did you know that was gonna be no I thought it was gonna suck but we'll get there to say, right, okay, so but Those shows like are scripted shows. They're not going to linear television anymore. They're going to streaming, right? Netflix and Peacock and Max and those guys.

And so, you know, now the linear stations are trying to do all sports, you know, and that's their angle. And on Shark Tank, literally when I got asked to be a guest shark, and they're like, we'll give you three episodes. I'm like, cool. I'll come on. This show's not going to last. I'm just going to go on the TV for three shows. Right. That's exactly right. I'll be on, you know, I'll be on network television on ABC for three shows. I'll raise some hell,

show people I know what I'm talking about with business and we'll see what comes next. And the next thing you know, bam. Of course, I take all the credit. This meteorites deal, obviously TNT has been at it. It's an institution. All right, Chuck, Kenny, Charles, and excuse me, Kenny, Ernie, and Shaq. So obviously they're an institution.

And after this year, they're not going to be there unless NBC or ESPN or one of these Amazon, somebody picks them up. How difficult is that? Because they say, well, we're going to sue because we had right or first refusal, whatever the case may be. You don't have to get into too deep into it, Mark. So what's going on with that? Did you know that the media rights deal was going to be basically like 3X, 4X, 10X?

Yeah, because we were the last big media deal available. So think about what we just said, right? How do you keep linear TV alive? Yes. Right, you need sports and the NFL's already locked up. So who's next? And so if you're gonna stay alive, you needed us. And then when streaming wanted some of it to be able

to carve out just some like Amazon carves out, Peacock carves out some, it's like like why would we not take that money yeah you know and I mean 51 goes to the players so they were happy about it too absolutely I think the thing is is that these platforms the streaming platform the Netflix the YouTubes they want to be channels they want to be taken serious and you cannot do it without sports. No, you can't. Because that's what's kept them alive, right? The NFL, to a lesser extent, the NBA, Major League Baseball, you know, the other sports are hell, but they're living on the NFL.

Yes. Right? And the NFL is just more and more and more and more. But at some point, there'll be a tipping point, right? Because it costs more to get a linear television network than it does just for streaming, right, because the cable network, the satellite network, they're having to pay all this money, and they're having to charge consumers all that money. That's not going to stick around forever. That's not sustainable. Yeah, it's not sustainable the way it is today, and all those platforms are trying to figure out the right way to do it.

If Mark Cuban was an NBA player today, how would he spend his money? How would he invest his money? What type of business? If you're an NBA player, so you're coming in, so you don't have the business augment that you have. Right, just chill. right, right, right. So if I'm just a two-way player, right? If I'm a two-way player, I'm living like a student.

Okay. Because you don't know how long it's going to last, right? Correct, okay. And one of the hard things is, you know, like I didn't grow up with money, I didn't have shit and so it's hard when you first get money to understand what it is, right? How much do you have and what can you actually do? Because you hear all these stories and you think, and you know how that goes, right? But you don't think it's going to happen to you.

Right, right. And you hear about the stories about people losing it all. So I tell guys all the time, save your money. You know, one broken ankle and it's over. It's over. And if I'm somebody making 40, 50, 60 million, then I'm hiring somebody that knows what they're doing, but it ain't going to be one of my friends. Okay. Right. It can't not be your friend because your friend wants to be your friend.

My money guy needs to make me money. Right. And it can't be a friend of a friend of a friend. It's got to be somebody who's done it for big time people and knows their shit. Right. Because that's, that's the other place guys get tied up. Well, that's my guy. He's been with me forever. I want to take care of him. He wants to get into finance. Oh, no, no, no, no.

No. He can still be with me. He can be your friend, right? I'll take you to dinner. I'll buy you. I'll pay you some money to take care of things, right? But you can't, you know, don't invest in the restaurant. Don't invest in the clothing label. Don't invest in the clothing label.

Don't invest in the liquor company, sorry. But, you know, our music, right? That is the death, right? So it's not so much now, right? But in the early 2000s, early 2010s, everybody wanted a music label, right? Everybody was either gonna be a rapper or they were going to, you know, have a label and sign rappers because that's what you

know what was going on and you know one athletes label that's done any good no I don't you know clothing companies no it's hard it is right those business are hard because there's no barriers to entry you want to start a clothing it's funny because I get people talk to me all the time So I've got this brand name, right? Let's get busy Lgb and you think you're sort of clothing line based off of Lgb, right? Or you know, I've got this one song that I'm gonna do right? Listen to this. Isn't this the best song you it's not that easy

do, right? And it's going, listen to this, isn't this the best song you have? It's not that easy. As the Dallas Mavericks owner, obviously your signature player before Luka, and you've had some great players at the Mavericks, but it's been Dirk. Yeah, of course. What has Dirk meant to you and this organization? Everything. He is the organization. He's the definition of the Dallas Mavericks. And again, not just what he did for us on the court, but who he is off the court. Dirk's that guy that's going to the hospitals without being asked, that's taking time with

kids, visiting them. When he has a special event and he's had many, he's making sure kids are coming. He's got that heart. People know he loves Dallas, and as a result, Dallas loves him. And that's what I, that's interesting thing, Mark, because a lot of these international players, like when they're done, they go back to their respected countries. Dirk has remained, he's German, but he's... He goes back and forth. He does. Yeah. But you're right. He's, he's Dallas, right?

But, um, he stays here. He goes back. Yeah, but you're right. He's he's Dallas, right? But He stays here he lives here just build a house here You know does charity continuously you you know, you can take you can't take the Dallas out of dirt now, right? Is it true that he brought his meals on the road in aluminum foil? Some not all right some yeah. no, I do remember that. He'd get it because he wanted healthier stuff. Right? Right. So I forgot all about that. So yeah, so he would get things specially made for him because he wasn't going to eat anything. Because you know what it's like on a team playing. There's fried chicken everywhere. Whatever the players just love to eat. Right. And he was like, no, I'm no more fried food.

Why have European players really, if you look at what the last six MVPs, it's been European players. You got Jokic with three, you got Janic with two, you got Joel and B with one. Why have they, why have we seen the shift to where European players are starting to dominate? Yeah, I mean just in the draft and two reasons. One, the rest of the world is bigger than us, right? So we've got 30, 330 million. Yeah, there's 8 billion people in the world, right? There's more options available, right? Particularly now with Africa and India and, you know, I love whenever I think India now like that song, Tantos in, you know, but love whenever I think India now, I like that song, 10 toes in, you know, that what I'm talking about.

But anyways, I digress. But so there's just more people and then the training methods are different. There's no equivalent of AAU. And you know, kids here like my son or whoever, they're playing game after game after game, but hardly practice. Wow. You know, and over there, there's two practices a day, and you might play one, two, three, maybe three times a week.

And so the focus is on developing skills. And no matter, you know, here, even still, we kind of pigeonhole people into certain positions. You're big, right? You get down on the block. The biggest guys you played, the four to five. Right, right. And so, and that's changing some, but they don't really work on all the skills or even more importantly, the basketball IQ. You know, and I take that

back a little bit because kids now are far more skilled at the high school level, at the junior high level. You see the handles, right? Like, my son's got handles, like he's got my athleticism, unfortunately for him, but my son's got handles. Like. Oh God, that's gonna work. Yeah, you know. I mean, I used to be able to dunk, but still. He's still got my athleticism. And so, but his handles are off the charts, right? And it's no big deal.

All the guys on his team can handle. And they get that from social media, but they don't get the same basketball IQ, right? They don't. So that's what I try to work on with him, right? Head up, what's gonna happen next, right? Anticipate where things are going. And you don't see that a lot with AAU.

And then parents get into it too. It's like, get my guy some minutes, right? Or my girl some minutes, and that makes it more difficult. Isn't that like that in the, the European parents aren't hummingbird, they're helicoptering, they're not hovering over? Not like here, not like here because, I mean, there's a lot of pressure on kids too, right?

They're in the meal ticket and that's tough. That is really tough. Dennis Schroeder crossing flag. He said, they asked Dennis Schroeder, he says, because European basketball is straight basketball IQ, no entertainment, straight coaching, really, really high IQ guys who know how to play the game. Of course, the US is the best league in the world, but Europeans, they're coming for sure.

Yep. Katie didn't take kindly to that. He's like, cause he took a picture of that when they won the gold medal, you know, best IQ and entertainment. What was Dennis Schrueter trying to say? And do you understand what he was saying? Yeah, of course I understand, right? So once you get past the the top 30 players, right IQ matters, right? Because you've got to be able to play with Luca You've got to be able to play with Kyrie because they have like high IQs and everything else to go with it

But the guys who are you know fits sixth seventh and lower on the roster You got to have a high basketball IQ to know where you're fit, know where your role is, and if all you ever learned was, you know, dribble, if you don't have an IQ, right, it's going to be harder to fit in the NBA, right? And so they're both, you know, Katie, give them a shit was right because we have the best players. It's not even close. But still, out of those top 20 players,

there's a reason why those guys have been MVP. And so if you have the level of skill that you need and you have that basketball IQ and it's developed, and if you flip it around, if we did the same development here for kids and you combine the athleticism and the skill with the basketball IQ, there might be half the number of European players or foreign players in the NBA. We just don't give them that basketball IQ support.

Are we, our American players, are we too reliant on athleticism? I think it depends. To a certain extent, yes. There are some players that like the KDs of the world, like LeBron's of the world, that are American have basketball cues off the charts. You know, they're just insane, you know, every element of the game. But kids see that and they try to replicate, you know, what Anthony Edwards does. Yeah. Right?

You know, dunking me on the head, right? And, you know, dunking down mix and all that stuff, right? And I don't see that from European kids coming in. And I think that's the difference. If you applied the same training techniques and combine that with the athleticism that we have in this country, yeah, it'd be a whole different league. I've never seen him play in person, but you had a front-world seat to see this guy

over the last decade, and that's Nikola Jokic. Yeah. When you look at a guy, and you, I mean, just look at him from television, you're like, okay, he doesn't have the cap shoulders like Giannis, he's not freight-trained like LeBron, he doesn't have the, he can't jump out the gym like a young Shaq.

But bro, he just light people up. What is it about him, Mark, that makes him so great, so unique, that he's able to dominate when he doesn't have anything about him that's physically dominating? You know what I mean? If you just saw him in a plate cup, you would be like, who's the chubby dude, right? Oh my God, he can play, right? But

it's skill, skill and basketball IQ. You combine being 6'11", 6'10", 11", with basketball IQ skill, he can shoot, he can dribble, he can pass, he sees things three steps ahead. You know, him and Luca are like, you know, twins in a lot of respects. And when you have all those elements to your game, like there's always a place for a shooter, right? Yes. Always a place for shooter in the NBA. There's always a place for somebody who can rebound. Now, if you can rebound and shoot, okay, you're going to be good. If you can rebound, shoot, handle, you're going to be really, really good. Yeah. If you can rebound, shoot, handle, and your basketball IQ is top five in the NBA, you're unstoppable. Right. In 2006, you said the situation with Dirk, it changed.

He started taking the way he ate, the way he trained, the way he did. Every single thing was different than the previous years because he had gotten so close. He got a taste of what it was like to play the NBA finals. You go up 2-0, you had to be feeling free. I thought this was going to be a fun interview. It is.

We're going to get to the first up So when you go up to Oh, you just like we got this no What we were up to Oh and it was the third quarter and we're in Miami And I always sit right behind the bench yesterday right and I'm standing up clapping and I'm thinking we're up like 14 in the yes And I'm thinking myself. Oh shit, we might sweep these dudes. Not two seconds later, right, Udonis Haslam steals the ball, goes in for a layup, now it's 12. Then a couple minutes later, Shaq pushes Eric Dampierre, pushes him, and they call a foul

on Eric Dampierre. I'm like, oh, if he hits these free throws, we're in trouble. Shaq hits two free throws, right? I'm like, oh shit, we're fucked. And, you know, went downhill from there. You know, and Dwayne Wade goes to the free throw line 973 times, right? So it was over. Well, let me ask you, the relationship that you have is unlike maybe only what Dr. Buzz had with Magic is that you party, you hang out with the players,'ve hung out with the players do you find how do you how do you manage

that because at the end of the day you are the owner you know I mean you have the you can sign players you can trade players you can release players how is that how does that have that ever interfered with your relationship with a player yeah for sure like my first year we had a player named Eric Strickland who I got to be really close with went Went to Nebraska, didn't have a long NBA career, but a great dude, right? And we got to be really good friends. And it was draft night and our guys were like, you know, here's a trade we need to do. And I'm like, oh fuck, right? We're gonna have to trade them. And you know, it was then I learned that you've got to do what's best for the team and players

respect that. And players, when they get traded, they may not like it, but they see another opportunity, hopefully the next place. But I also realized that basketball is X number of years, life's a long, long time. Even when we screwed up and let Steve Nash go, I've gotten to be friends with Nashie. Took some time, right? He, you know, he didn't like me for a long time, but you know, now we're, we're friends again. And so, you know, you just, it's okay to be friends with them. It's okay. Um, to get close to them. You just have to be honest

with them. And if you're honest with them, it's okay. What are your, what are your thoughts on super teams? They don't really work. Yeah, they they don't really work and it's going to be a lot harder now with the new CBA. With the new collective bargaining agreement, they have this first apron and second apron thing, right? And if you have three max out players, you're right there by the time you have 15 guys, you're over the second apron. And if you stay at the second apron for two years, you're getting your first draft pick moved to the end of the draft, or you can't trade it, and then the second time, second

year if you're over, you move to the end of the draft, right, no matter what. And there's limits on the trades you can make. It's hard to build a team. And so I think it's going gonna be harder and harder and harder for teams to have a big three that are all maxed out. Now what you want is, what we hope is a player, well, Clay comes in, right, and a nausea marshal comes in, but we got someone we drafted like Derrick Lively,

who can be an all-star caliber player or better. It's just like the Celtics. They were able to make a lot of trades because J. Brown and Tatum, yeah, were on not rookie contracts, but on lower contracts as the cap went up. That's what you need to have happen. And if you go for it and you get three max out players

and it doesn't work, I mean, look at the Clippers. They had three amazing max out players and it doesn't work. I mean, look at the Clippers, you know, they had three amazing max out players and you know, injuries got in the way and it's going to be really hard to keep together a team like that. Yeah, it's going to be hard for the Clippers to keep that thing because PG is gone, Kawhi can't, for whatever reason, he can't stay healthy. So... It's tough. It's tough, right? I don't want to talk specifically about any one team, but you know, three max out players, particularly those numbers go up. Yes. Right. Those numbers go up because the max out contracts, you know, as a percentage, you're at 35% for a super max of the cap. And if you got three of them, right, that's 105% of the cap. Right. Depending on when you sign it. Right. So it's not going to stay that way. Because the you know, you'll three of them right that's 105 percent of the cap depending on when you sign it right so it's not gonna stay that way because you know you'll sign a guy at 35 percent then a cap will go up 10 percent

right so he won't stay at 35 percent but it's close enough right over just three guys that it's gonna be hard to keep them together. LeBron obviously are you surprised that he's been able to play as well as he has for as long as he has to be as durable as he's been? Yeah, of course. I thought he was done five times already. The guy's a beast, but he's got that mental fortitude, right? It's like we talked about with Dirk.

He's just one of those guys that he understands the assignments. You got to take care of your body. You got to take care of your mind. You've got to take care of your mind You've got to take care of your skills his three-point shooting is improved like yes, you know, and so He gets credit for doing the work And you know, that's what makes him one of the greatest of all time I tell kids and I tell when I talk to athletes I say you have to spend more time because you're gonna spend more time off the court or off the field than you do on the field. They say for a lawyer for every hour that you spend in the courtroom you need to spend two, two and a half hours preparing.

Same in business. So if you're gonna spend on the court you spend that kind of time you need to spend time eating and taking care of your body. Especially as you get older. Yes. It does not get easier. Yes. It does not get easier. Yes, it does not get easier. Trust me, you're still young. Wait until it gets harder and harder and harder.

That shit is no fun, but he gets all the credit in the world for having that discipline to be able to do it. Most guys don't. He wants to be an owner. Obviously, I think you guys are looking at maybe bringing a team to Vegas. I think Seattle is being talked about. I don't know if there's anybody else, but I think those are the two franchises. And obviously, he's kind of looking at the one in Vegas.

What type of owner do you think LeBron would make? I don't know. Players, it's going to be a lot harder for a player, right? We saw Michael Jordan, right? Great guy, had some success, but not as much as you wanted. It's hard because players have one mindset and they look at other players in a certain way. Why you can't do that?

I can do that. Let me show you, right? I'm Michael Jordan, I'm 55 years old, I'm going to whoop your ass, right? But yeah, it's just a completely different perspective that's hard to disconnect yourself from. And it's hard to be objective and not have your player mindset. And so like when you've seen general managers that are former players, they're not the- I'm Renee Stubbs and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. On the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I get the chance to do what I love.

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Subscribe now and listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Great players that are good general managers. It's the role players that got to watch everybody else and understand how to fit these pieces together. And so for any superstar, it's going to be hard. Being an owner, what's a typical day for a Mark Cuban

when you were the full-time owner of the Mavericks? What's a typical day? What time do you wake up and what's your schedule? So it depends what part of the season it is. So during the off season is when I spent, had to do most of the work, right? Because the free agency and the draft and everything. So that's where I had to pay the most attention.

And then when you get to the trade deadline, that's another time when you have to pay a lot of attention. Otherwise, I'm just screaming and yelling, right? There's, you know, as long as, you know, and it also depends if you're winning or losing. If you're winning, it if you're winning it's easy Everything just goes if you're losing And you don't want to lose because there's there's rebuilding and then there's losing when you think you're gonna win

And when you're losing when you think you're gonna win, that's when an owner has to do with stuff, right? Because you've got to communicate you've got to make decisions What about you know, is it the coach? Is it the players? Is it the general manager? And is it the decisions we made? Is it chemistry? Why are we not performing the way we expected this team to perform? That's when it's hard as an owner because you got to figure it out. I mean, I remember like it was 2008 maybe.

We were playing in Sacramento and no it was later than that but in any event we're playing in Sacramento and we just were not playing hard and I remember walking to I've only given probably four locker room speeches right and I walked into the locker room and I started pointing at different guys, you know, did you get your paycheck this week? Yeah, did you get your paycheck this week? And I went around to all of them, you get your paycheck this week and they all said yes, then motherfucking play like you got your paycheck right week? And I went around to all of them. You get your paycheck this week? And they all said yes. The motherfucking play like you got your paycheck, right? Because you're doing shit, right?

And. So I can imagine the looks like. And we lost that game. Do owners ever, because I heard you say, you're like, is it the coach? Is it the players? Is it the GM? Is it anything else in the staff? Do owners ever look at themselves heard you say, is it the coach, is it the players, is it the GM, is it anything else in the staff?

Do owners ever look at themselves like, is it me? Is it something I do? Yeah, of course. Oh, all the time. Right? Because it's my final responsibility, like we said before. And you're going to make mistakes. And I've made plenty.

You know? I traded early on, I traded for this one dude and literally I thought he was the Unibomber. I thought he was going to blow shit up, like for real blow shit up. And I'm like, what the hell did I do? And at the beginning it was just like, okay, let's see if we can integrate him, integrate him, it just wasn't going to work out. So he was just on the StairMaster all day every day and that was it. And because we couldn't trade him, he wasn't tradeable. But you see you make mistakes like that and you just got to own it. Right. You know, in the early

days when I first bought, you could kind of buy your way out of mistakes and buy your way into a better team because there are a lot more old school owners. Now there's, you know, either super, super rich people or private equity groups and they can afford to play the whole game. Back in the early days, in the 2000s, there were a lot of old school owners. Mom and pops. Yeah, mom and pops that had been there 40 years, right? And you could buy a draft pick for $3 million,

and I'd be like, okay, make a trade and take on $25 million in salary to save their ass. Okay, but you can't even do that in the CBA anymore and now they have a lot more money so they don't like they're like okay I'll buy that pick get the fuck out of here. Mark you made a decision that you sold a majority share of the Mavericks and I know with the Mavericks of all the companies I think the Mavericks are your baby I think they they've meant the most and to you yeah that's the only one I've ever been for 24 years. Right.

How difficult, how did you come to that decision? And was that a difficult decision? Because I'm sure you thought long and hard, like, I'm gonna do it. No, I'm not. I'm gonna do it. No, I'm not. I mean, it had more to do, well, there was two reasons,

only two reasons, right? One, because of my family, right? You know, I'm at that age now, I'm not gonna be around for 30 years, right? And so, are my kids, my kids now are 15, 18 and 21, are they gonna wanna run this? And what if they decide not to? And then what do I do, right?

And so that was the biggest thing. And you know what sports are like too, was also I don't want to just automatically put pressure on them. It's great when you're winning, right? Everybody wants to run a team when you're winning, but when the shit's hitting the fan and you suck and you know what social media is like, and kids are on social media all the time, I don't want to, didn't want to put my kids in

the position where they're like, you know, and they have to deal with that stuff while they're just developing as adults. So that was one. And number two, to compete in the NBA now is expensive. Not all teams make money. It's not like the NFL. And in order to have the money to be able to do whatever you need, luxury tax, whatever it may be, it's not just about technology or tickets or TV anymore. Like technology, okay, I got that down, right? TV, media, got that shit down to streaming, got that shit down down But now you got to build real estate

I don't know shit about real estate and never was it never did and so when I had a chance to work with Patrick Dumont starting years ago We would talk all the time about bringing, you know resort based casino gaming to Dallas or to Texas and You know He would talk about what it takes to build a casino and to build a new arena that fit in there and I'm like I don't know anything about this and so if the Mavs were going to compete I was gonna have to learn all that stuff and honestly I don't want to learn it and if that was

if it was gonna take two billion in cash to make all that work Steve Balmer's got that I don't have that I do now which I'm happy about. But now you don't want to build. Now you don't want to build. No, I just didn't know. I could have borrowed it and all that stuff. But I would have to learn it or I would have had to just trust somebody and that's just not my style. That's a lot of money to trust. That's a lot of money to trust. A lot on the line. And so now I've got a great partner who will know, going to improve the arena we have today,

we'll build something new, we'll be able to make a destination that Dallas will be proud of. And he knows things, he's forgotten more about building than I've ever known. And so it makes a great partner, which puts the Mavs in a much better position to compete. Right. What are your thoughts on gambling? You think you're going to be able to do half gambling here in Texas? I do. I don't know when, but I do. Because I mean, you guys live outside of Texas. Yes. What is it that you save up and get excited to come to Texas on a vacation to do? Have you ever thought about coming to Texas on a vacation? No. You know anybody who does? I guess college kids go to what, South Padre or something? Yeah, for spring break? Yeah, for spring break. You know, maybe you go to Austin to Sixth Street or,

you know, Austin City Limits? South by Southwest. Yeah, you know, but it's not really like a vacation. You don't think of it as a vacation destination anywhere in Texas. And so let me change that question. If we put a Bellagio or Venetian in downtown Dallas. Yeah, they come. People want to gamble. Yeah. And not just gamble, right? You like, you go to Vegas now, you spa, you got, you know, you have Salim Diyan You're the shows right you got all that stuff and you become a you know being in the center of the country if you put A Venetian right in the middle of Dallas We're gonna all of a sudden become a top three tourist destination in this country. And so that's why I think it'll pass. I

Read a report and let me let you think about this, is that Americans are spending more on sports betting than they are in investing. Are you surprised by that? I think it depends on the age of the person, because I read something similar, right? And so if you're real young, you're betting, but you're not betting a lot, right? Or you're buying crypto, dogecoin to the moon, baby. You know, it's hard for kids to save money, right? Or you're buying crypto, dogecoin to the moon, baby. You know, it's hard for kids to save money, right? And so, you know how kids are, right? You know, you're a 22

year old dude or woman for that matter in college, right? And I know sports, I know sports, you know? And so you play and you're probably going to lose, but it's fun, right? It's just entertainment money, kind of like crypto is. But yeah, I just think when you get to people who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, I don't think the numbers I've seen are that they're not, unless you have a real problem, they're not overspending. When you sold the company, Mark, you gave your employees, it was reported, $35 million.

You gave them bonuses. Why did you feel the need to do that? You know, and it ended up being a lot more actually, but I'm not there without them. And I did it my first two companies, I did it with Micro Solutions, you know, we had 80 employees, they all got paid. I did it with broadcast.com out of 330 employees, 300 became millionaires. And I wanted to do the same thing with the MAPs. They were there for me the whole time, and it was enough money that for those who were

there, 20 years or more, it was life-changing money. Did you think? Yeah. So when you started the first streaming platform, you're like, okay, I can foreshadow, I can think this is heading in this direction. You say you and your partner, you bought a computer, you and your partner, you guys sit down and you start coding. How long before it started becoming profitable? Because that's the hardest, I mean,

if it's profitable, why the wait? It took us four years to get the break even. So we had gone public, it was the number one IPO in the history of the stock market in 1998 and we sold it in June of 2020 I think it was and that second quarter we were right around cash flow breakeven but we were only in business for four years and so. You mean 2000. 2000 right yeah and so we were only in business for four years. So that wasn't horrible for a tech business like that. Did you ever, I mean, YouTube, Netflix, I remember this had to be 1999, 2000.

I went to a nail shop and the lady was telling me about how she get movies from Netflix. I said, so tell me about it. She said, what you do is that, you know, you tell them what you want and they'll send it, the DVD right to your door. you tell them what you want and they'll send it the DVD Right right to your door you watch them when you want to and you put them back in the thing and send them back I was like I said, what about blockbuster? She's like now I think blockbuster is gonna go away

I'm like, I don't know about that. She was right She was right. I'm like I'm thinking to myself had I just taken like ten fifteen thousand dollars and put it in the Netflix boom I just take it like ten, fifteen thousand dollars. And put it in the Netflix. Boom! No kidding. Did you know that it would blow, that there would be a net, because you were new to YouTube and Netflix before they were even. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, that's why I was so upset with Yahoo. Like they had a huge opportunity. I mean, they were YouTube before YouTube when they bought us. And you know, when the internet stock bubble burst, their board of directors just say pull everything back instead of sticking with it. And Reed Hastings and the folks at Netflix, they were like not pulling back, right? They were going for it.

And then YouTube shows up and they couldn't even afford to stay in business, but then Google buys them and that just changed everything. Yeah, because at first YouTube was a streaming platform, not anymore like ads. I mean, yeah, I mean, it was like 2006 they, now they're more like ads. I mean. Yeah, I mean, it was like 2006 they started and it was just like little short videos

and stupid videos and stuff. But credit to them, they got Google to partner and Google did it right. So when a company comes in and they says, okay, we're gonna buy you, is that all cash? Is that cash plus stocks? In our case, it depends on the company, right? But in our case with broadcast.com, it was all stock.

And so in my mind, I was like, oh shit, right? What if this all the stock market crash? So I went once I was legally able to I did something called a caller. So I sold the right to somebody to buy the stock at a higher price. That's selling calls. And then I used that money to buy puts, which protected me in case the stock at a higher price, that's selling calls, and then I used that money to buy puts, which protected me in case the stock price cratered.

Well, the stock price did crater, and those puts became worth even more money than I would have gotten from the stock, and they called it one of the top 10 trades in Wall Street history. So that's how they called it. Yeah. So what was that number one e-commerce purchase?

What did you purchase? I bought a jet online. It had to be a Gulfstream. Yeah, G5. Yeah, so I just got paid and I was like, time is like my number one thing. I want a jet, right? I want a jet. And so I'm like, well, I'm an internet guy. I'm going to practice what I preach. So I got a contact at Gulfstream. I emailed them and I said, okay, can I get a test flight? They set up a test flight. I'm like, okay, I like this. Hard to figure out. I like that, right? What's the price? Told me the price was $40 million. I texted them a deal, right? Send me the paperwork, email me the paperwork.

Emailed it to me. I did a wire transfer, did the whole thing online. So the jet was already, because you can build your own jet, but you didn't have that. No, you can't build your own jet. You can't build your own? No, hell no. Would you want, hey, hey, Shannon, come on to my jet that I built. Would you get on that jet? No, no, no. What I'm saying is like you can design it. Oh no, the features and everything.

Yeah, the features and everything. No, no, no, I built it. Hell no. I ain't going to go on a long wheel ride. I don't know nothing about flying. No, right? Yeah, so that's what I did. So I asked for, you know, where's the kitchen in it, how many seats, what's the layout and all that, and the test flight that they gave me matched that. Okay. Tell us about, was it American Airlines, you brought the two-

The Lifetime Pass. The Lifetime Pass, and you brought two Lifetime Passes where you could fly first class anywhere in the world whenever you wanted. Right, so it was just one, it was a little card I got, but I could take anybody with me. Okay. Right, and so this was after I sold my first company,

Micro Solutions. I was 29, I think, 30, and just sold this company, walked away with a few million dollars, and I was like, my buddies and I going out just got destroyed. We went to one of these old school steak houses, they don't really have anymore, but where you could ask for a phone

and plug it into a jack in the wall there, right at your table. And I'm like, you know what, they're like, what do you want? What do you think you're going to do with all this money? And I'm like, I don't care about cars or houses, but boy, you know, I fly a lot for work. If I could get this lifetime pass, I wonder if such a thing exists. So I'm like, like I even because I had memorized because I traveled like 1-800-433-6464 The American I think that's still the number, right? Is it?

That's all right. But anyways, um, yeah, whatever. So I called him up just slurred my words Do you guys sell lifetime passes? They're like, let me connect you to the Air Pass Department. I'm like what? BAM, right and so I got all that information hung over as hell. And I've signed up and it was initially it was $125,000. And then I upgraded it. I think I forget how much I paid, but it gave me almost unlimited miles for me and somebody else for the rest of my life. Wow. Yeah.

So where's the past that now? I gave my dad's passed away. I gave it to him and then I gave it to a friend as a gift. So it was transferable? Just one time. Just one time. Yeah. Okay.

But because my dad died, they let me do it because he didn't use it a lot and I didn't use it a lot. So they let me transfer. I don't think they do that anymore. No, they don't. They don't. They don't. You put some out of them.

The way people find out. But what a deal, right? I mean, let me just tell you, like $125,000, and I'm thinking, okay, doing the math, that's 12 cents a mile, I can deal with that, right? And like, I'd be out in LA or wherever, Dallas, I'm like, you want a road trip? Let's call American Airlines

and see if they got any flights tonight. Let's go to Vegas. What's your name again? Doesn't matter, let's go to Vegas. What's your name again? Doesn't matter. Let's go to Vegas. Boy, you lived a life. Yes, I did. That was what? The early 90s, man. That was a different time. What type of investor is Mark Cuban?

Now just really conservative. I like investing in small companies, startups where I can help entrepreneurs because I like to do that. That's what I do on Shark Tank. But with interest rates at 5 plus percent, why take risk? So it's easier to do that either through tax freeze or treasuries or whatever. But I still like to invest in startups. Right. Man, you're on Shark Tank.

Y'all be taking them people. Man, how y'all gonna take half the company? They done worked like five, 10 years trying to build this up and y'all coming in taking 27%. They offered you five. Could you go to 10? Why you taking 30? Damn! Well, it depends on the size of the company, right? Because I'm giving them a lot of money because if they didn't need the money, they wouldn't be there. They wouldn't be there. You're absolutely correct. And so they're not there because, you know, maybe they're there because of the commercial, but they're there because they need help.

And so, you know, it's been a lot of fun. I've invested in hundreds of companies there over the 15 years. Some have done really well. Beatbox beverages, you may have heard of. Dude wipes, you probably have heard of. There's just a bunch of them that are just destroyed, just killed it. And some of them didn't do as good right and so you've got A you've got to understand that

You know 25% are going to go belly up for whatever reason 45 now let's say 60 percent are going to be okay, right and 15 percent are going to kill it And I got to make sure those 15 percent I really get paid on to cover all the other ones. Didn't ring, didn't ring, didn't ring came on? But I don't like that deal anyways right because ring had to they sold for a billion dollars but they had to raise like 500 million to get there you know obviously it was a good product and it paid out but I have a rule right if you have to raise hundreds

of millions of dollars to do tens of millions in sales it ain't gonna work for me right now if you're able to sell and get an exit more power to you and he was able to so he deserves all the credit have you gotten upset when a shark stole one of your deals no one steals my shit they come on this is mark I want to use it. Yeah, for sure, right? You haven't watched a show. Do you think anybody got one of mine?

No, hell no. But other than the Mavericks, obviously, that was a big investment. But you own Netflix, Amazon. I did for a while. Yeah, when they were turning around, right? When people didn't understand what they were doing, I made a lot of money. I bought calls, which, you know, the right to buy the share at a higher price, and I bought a lot of them, a lot of them.

And they went up 10 times what I put up. So I was a happy camper. But when they say it takes money to make money, because you've been in the situation, because you've created these companies and been able to have money, so when these lesser, when these, like you say, you like to invest in startups, you're able to make a kill it.

Yeah, I mean, look, in order to be a billionaire, you have to be lucky as fuck. There's no way around it, right? I don't care how smart I think I am, or Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer or Buffett or Elon Musk. It takes luck. If I started doing things five years earlier and coming out of college and the internet wasn't happening. Yeah, you know, right, you know, it's just when we started cost, but when we started broadcast.com, that was right at the right time. And no one had done streaming. And the and the

internet stock market was just blowing up, right? Okay, that's how you become a billionaire. And that, you know, I worked my ass off. I was smart I did shit other people were afraid to do but if the internet stock market hasn't hadn't been the same I'd be just some guy, you know, just chilling, you know And you'd have no idea who I was right But it had but you have to take some risk because I remember when I'm Google Came out and they thought the pay the shares were gonna open up about $85 a share And I remember sitting to my financial guys and I'm like, oh, you know what? I had just signed with the Ravens.

So I had some money and I was like, man, I'd like to buy, you know, $300,000 worth. Well, it opens up at 115 and he says it's overpriced. And so, you know, it's going to come back. They don't have the profit. Yeah. Hey, I've done that. I know you're not the first one to say it's like Nvidia. It's like Nvidia right now, right? I like I told myself my son wanted to invest in it and he bought some and I'm like, you know I'd rather see it come down first

and my son's like Who's the expert now right? How many times has Google split? Oh, I mean, you know, it's worth over three trillion dollars three trillion dollars three trillion dollars Trillions trillions. I mean not billions That's a thousand billions of trillion dollars. So that my investment out of my I've been a billionaire with you, right? You fucked up Because Netflix and Google and I had the money to do it But I let somebody talk me out of it, but and it but he but then there's 25 other ones that right

You thought you should go and he talked you out of it. They lost your butt. It's a so it evens out. Yeah When people you so benevolent when people try to take advantage of you I read that you had an employee you that from you. When you've been as generous as you have over the course of your career, does that make you sour on people? No, no, because people steal. What am I gonna do? Yeah, steal from somebody else, don't steal from me.

You know what? It's a good problem to have, right? That means you got it, huh? I can afford it. Right. My first company, Micro Solutions, though, there was a lady, Renee Hardy, R-E-N-E-E-H-A-R-D-Y, right? She was our receptionist.

And her job, she had one job, right? Take our payables for our vendors, put it in an envelope, lick the envelope, take it to the post office. Right. We had $84,000 in a... I'm Renee Stubbs and I'm obsessed with sports, especially tennis. On the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I get the chance to do what I love. Talk about how tennis and other women's sports are growing and changing

and what the future holds. I think I just genuinely loved what I did. I love this waking up, putting on my sports gear. I still believe it was so rewarding. Maybe you can relate to it as well. As a woman, I think it's a very powerful feeling to have a job at which you're able to see improvements in real time. On the show, we dissect everything going on in the game straight from the biggest players in the time. On the show, we dissect everything going on in the game

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll never forget. Get a call from the bank. Sir, this woman just came through the drive through and the checks were whited out. The payee was whited out. Remember whited out with you? Yes, yes, yes. She wrote her name in it. What?

I'm like, you didn't cash them, did you? Of course we did. We're a bank, sir. She took $82,000 of the $84,000 that we had. We were flat broke and the 82,000 was supposed to go to vendors. So now we had to call the vendors, say please work with us, we'll bust her ass, we'll make sure you get paid. And they did, they worked with us, right? And the rest is history.

But she could have just, boom, done. Then I was mad, that's why I always say, Renee Hardy. Did you press charges? We couldn't find her, that's been years and no one's found her since. And now I get emails from people, right, that are like, I heard about this name Renee Hardy, you know, and so and so's name. It's just random names, right? The same name and like, no, no one's ever found her. She's probably changed her name or whatever. Mark, when you accumulate the amount of wealth that you have. How has your inner circle changed? It hasn't.

It hasn't at all. Like my guys from you know grade school, high school that I grew up with, we just did a zoom. We do every two weeks. They come out to MAVS games. I go to see them. They're still my buddies. My college buddies, you know, Ben and Tim, you know, still my best friends. I played rugby in college and after my rugby teammates are still my best buddies. When I came to Dallas, I slept, you know, Ben and Tim, you know, still my best friends. I played rugby in college and after my rugby teammates are still my best buddies. When I came to Dallas, I slept, you know, five guys, six guys in a three bedroom apartment and you know, Shippe and Suze and Ron Ead and you know, Fred Turner and all these guys, they're all still my great friends. At the end of the day, at heart, you a college frat guy.

Oh, for sure. You know, it's- my great friends. At the end of the day, at heart, you a college frat guy. Oh, for sure. Right? You know, it's just. He got six guys, and we in the bedroom. We just hanging out. We go out and drink beers. You're mad, right?

You know, live like, like, I bought a book when I was in college. It was called How to Retire by the Age of 35. And basically what it says is live like a student so you can save all your money. Right. And then if you do that, you know, and you, you know, even if you're investing in, like,

just treasuries or whatever that pay 3%, 4%, 5%, OK, you know, and you, you know, even if you're investing in like just treasuries, whatever, that pay three, four, five percent, okay, you know, you get, you know, a million dollars and you make five percent on that, that's 50 grand if you're living like a student, you turn that into two million, etc., etc. And that was my goal, right? And so moving down the Dallas and living, you know, sleeping on the floor the whole time, you know, going out and literally buy one beer and eating all the fried mushrooms and shit. I was cool with that. I was having a blast. It was no problem at all. Why was your family? Because I think the thing is, it's easier said than done. Because a lot of times, I'm just speak to me, I don't want to speak to anybody else. But to speak

to me, we didn't have anything growing up. And I've always wanted to make sure that I could take care of my family. But I wanted some things that I couldn't get when I was growing up. I wanted to be able to go to a restaurant if I wanted something nice to be able to go. If I saw something, you know, clothes as far as clothes, maybe a watch, I want to be able to get it. Your mom and dad, were you like middle class? Yeah, my dad did upholstery and car or see. So if you, if this had a rip in it, you take it to where my dad worked and he'd sew it

up, right? My mom did odd jobs, you know, my dad never made more than $40,000 a year in his life that was good money though you do realize what you know I know I'm not complaining yeah I'm not complaining right yeah I'm not complaining right but still you know and that's you know he wouldn't retire right like even after I started making money he wouldn't retire really no no he had to work right he does that's you know that's his thing that's the thing yeah and like he had to be able to pull out that credit card if we all went to dinner and pay for it.

Because if I paid for that, that was an insult. Wow. I read you had your hips replaced. Yeah, both of them. I had both of my replace. A lot better, isn't it? Boy, it's a new lease on life. I'm telling you, you wake up and it's just like, oh, I mean, I'm living because back I was surviving.

And the pain is like on a scale of back I was surviving and that the pain there's like On a scale of one to ten. What's the pain ten? Because you like you'd be in bed, right? You'd be trying to sleep and they will lock up and you'd have to do like a push-up and like drop I would have to do a drop just to get them to unlock so I can walk and like I remember Um, I would I got one done at 49. And then the other one done like five years later. And I remember walking through the hall of the arena. And one of our guys like, dude, you walk like an 80 year old man. And I'm like, okay, it's time. It's

time. You know, my legs wouldn't go that wide. It was just like, It's, I mean, how you have to get out of bed, you got to roll. Yeah, yeah, it was, it's but's but I mean and the doctor told me say you're gonna have a new lease on life I'm like, yeah, I did use everybody every doctor says that after surgery But boy who changed everything it absolutely changed everything This new company tell us about the new drug company cost plus drugs is helping me Hello, y'all help me and buy a biagra and cialis for a cheaper price are you buying from us nah I do that roast I'm on Romans them roast parts no fuck that right let me just tell you let me just tell you you can buy 90 generic cialis

or generic viagra for less than you pay for a bag of M&Ms from CosplusDrugs.com. Wow. But the ones I got, they knock sparks. That's the name, sparks. Got that red spark on a red pill? Take the red pill. Let me just tell you, right? If you get like the 20 milligrams, you won't let anybody walk with it. Never mind. But you go to CosplusDrugs.com and so, I actually got a cold email from a doctor named Dr. Alex Oshmianski in our offices right across the street there. And he goes, I want to start this pharmacy that manufactures, compounding pharmacy that manufactures drugs that are on a shortage list, right? So that people can't get them, I want to make them so they can get access to their medications.

And I'm like, that's great, but what more can we do? And so we started talking, and this is right about the time the farmer bro was going to jail. And I'm like, if this dude can buy one drug, bare prim, and just jack up the price, then there's something wrong with this business. Let me look into it. And it was really obvious really quickly

that what was missing is transparency. Nobody trusts the price of healthcare. No one trusts healthcare at all, right? Particularly medications, right? So if you get a prescription for something, the first question they ask isn't, you know, can you afford it? It's like, where's your pharmacy? And then, you know, we've all heard stories of people waiting in line, don't know what

it's going to cost and can't afford it, losing insurance, whatever. So we started this company called CostPlusDrugs.com. CostPlusDrugs.com. And so when you go to CostPlusDrugs.com, and not that you need it, but like if you put in Cialis, with Tadilifil, which is generic Cialis, and you need 90 of them, we'll show you our cost, right? Whatever we pay for it, we mark it up 15%,

we add our shipping and handling on it, and then when you add it all together, in this case, less than a bag of M&Ms, but it's gonna be cheaper than anywhere else. And so what else is cool about it though, is there were a lot of companies before us that these things called pharmacy benefit managers, we don't need to get into it,

that just jack up the price of certain drugs because they're not used all that much. Supply and demand. Yeah, supply and demand. And so, like, I had a friend who was in this car wreck and he lost his insurance and they were going to, there was this drug called Dropadoza, and they were like saying, they were going to charge him $30,000 every three months. And he's like, I can't afford that.

Can you do something? Hell no, not very many people can. He can afford that. I'm like, let me check. So I check into it, and this was two years ago, and I'm like, okay, Landon, I can get it to you for $64 a month. There's these other drugs for muscular,

multiple sclerosis rather, and we're seeing our price be $21, $22. Other people are charging $2,000. Other drugs, you know, imatinib, which is for chemotherapy, anywhere from $200 to $2,000, depending on the strength, our price is like $23 to $24. And so when someone comes to the site, you know, you've got this disease

and we're the only way you can afford your medication, not only you buy it from us, but you're telling everybody, you're telling your doctor. And so we've, you know, we launched January 19th of 2022, so here we are two and a half years later, millions of customers just changing people's lives. I get emails and texts and social media almost every day saying, oh my God, you saved my life. So right now we have like 2,500 generics, 74 different brands, and we're adding more

and more brands. But if you want to see if you can reduce the price of your medications, go to costplusdrugs.com. What made you decide to do that? The healthcare industry is fucked up. I mean, what could be, you know, I've done a lot of- You're ripping people off, huh? Yeah, I mean, what could be a better legacy?

What could be a better way, you know, to really be successful in business than fucking up the healthcare business? To me, that was everything, right? If you come in, and we've only been in two and a half years and we literally are changing the whole industry. And so I'm proud of that. I mean, it's exciting and it's fun

and we're just getting started. What are your thoughts on Ozempic? It seems that that's the new Hollywood. I mean, I'm not a doctor, but whether it's terzepatide, which is zep-bound from Lilly, or Ozempic, which is from Novor North, right? By the way, Lilly just, so there's two ways you can get the diet drugs, right? The GLP-1s is what they call them.

And there's two ways, again, you can get them with the pens, right? Or you can get them with a vial, right? And if you get them with the vial, they just started selling them with the vial this week. Instead of it being $1,300 a month, it'll be four or $500 a month. And so the prices are starting to come down. And if they live up to the billing, again, I'm not a doctor, I'm not the scientist, but if they live up to the billing,

it's gonna change a lot. People crave foods, and if the thing ever got down under 100 bucks a month, fuck it, everybody's gonna take it, right? And it's gonna, you know, you talk about investing, right? Are people gonna eat less food? Yeah, they're gonna eat less food. Are people gonna be healthier and lead less healthcare food Yeah, they're gonna eat less food are people gonna be healthier and lead less health care

Yeah, they're gonna need less health care, you know, they're gonna be fewer heart attacks, etc. Except it can be all skinny though mark Everybody's you know, I mean don't we don't we want people of different sizes and different bodies You don't have to not everybody responds the same way you don't and you don't have to take it Right, you don't have to take it. But you so I guess have to take it. So I guess if you take it, you try to get scared, huh? I mean, yeah, but you don't have to, right? I mean, there's studies that say, you know, you see athletes, right? Some of these dudes, six, eight, 350 pounds, that are just insane shape and great athletes. Everybody's their own thing. The Illuminati. I've had people on here and they talk about the Illuminati. Do you believe

in it? Fuck no. Literally people come on and think it's real? Yeah. Okay, so like, what are the other ones? There's the Illuminati and who are the other ones that are like that? There's like other secret groups, right? Yes, yes, yes, secret societies. Right? I'm like, I'm rich as fuck, I'm Jewish. Nobody asked me to join any of them secret societies, right? Nobody. I'm like, hello? Can I at least get an invite to a cocktail party? Nobody. Nobody.

I'm like, okay, maybe it's me. You're going to blow the lid on the thing, Mark. No, if it's cool. I mean, I've been to many parties. I haven't said shit, right? Social media, what are your thoughts on social media? I mean, good and bad, right? It's not so good for kids anymore. It's not good when it comes to politics and medical information. There's a ton of misinformation, but I mean, when it's it can be great but social media isn't social anymore Right, you know, maybe some on Instagram maybe some on tick-tock But even there right you post something you think is no big deal and people are killing you, right? they're giving you shit about everything just because they can and

There's just no way around that and even worse right the way the algorithms work now Everybody's social media feed is different. Yes. You know, yours is different than mine, than different than each one of the folks here. Everybody's different. And so the way things are sold has changed. The way people consume information has changed. We have an election coming up, right?

And everybody gets their own feed and nobody knows what's real information. And everybody now thinks of things in like 15, 30-second soundbites anyways. Delante West, he's fallen on some hard times and you've done several times, you've reached out and tried to help. How hard is it to see someone that played for you struggle with mental health illness? Brutal, right? Because I thought we had him. I thought we had him turned around. You know, we sent him down to Jason's place down in Florida, and it's like a farm, Jason Williams.

And, you know, he's like, he's making progress, sending pictures. Dante's emailing me and I'm like, oh, yeah, we're getting this. Then Dante throws his shit over the fence, disappears. We bring him back again. Making progress. This is it. Same shit. Only so much you can do.

Wow. What can people learn from that story? Mental illness is real. It is real and you just don't wish it away. You don't just rehab it away. You know, I've got other friends, you know, Tanya, these other people that I support and help. Um, you just You want them to get help, but some things you can't help on everything, right?

You were the shareholder in twitter before No, I wasn't I wasn't. Yeah, I wasn't so what's your what's your um, Back and forth with with elon. Yeah. Oh man I just love to fuck with him, right? It's like nobody likes to fuck with him, right? So I'm like, yeah, he'll turn you to it up. Yeah, right I mean, he's got really thin skin and so it just makes it easy. It's like He sets himself up right when when you think when it's your place and it's your business. It's like a club, right? Yeah, come on in have a drink and every you just assume everybody's just gonna really you know, say yes to you, right?

Right. Nobody ever says that dinner sucked, right? I Just it's just fun and I don't have anything personal against them and I never initiate it Right. The only time I ever come go back at Elon is when he tries to fuck with me. So like he's called me a racist He's called me a fool. He's called me all these different names, so he's always called me names and I don't care. But if you're going to call me a name, I'm just going to fuck with you, right? Because it's because you're Elon. If it's just some random, what's the point? How important is this election in 2024? Everything to me, I mean, look, if you don't think Donald Trump is a threat, you don't think this is the most important election. I do. I just don't. I've known him for 25 years. I don't trust him. Right. I don't think

he's moral. I don't think he's ethical. I've seen him rip people off. I don't, I don't believe pretty much anything he says. And so to me, you know, I've been trying to support Kamala. What are your thoughts on DEI? On DEI? I like it. I think it's good for business, right? I think a lot of people try to misrepresent what it is. But to me, diversity means good business. Look for people where other people aren't looking. Not all companies recruit at HBCUs, right? Not all companies recruit at different schools where there's a large Indian population or

where there's a large LGBTQ population. And so, I want, like any other business element, I want to look where other people aren't because that's where you find smart people. And then once you find those smart people, they got to be qualified. You're not hiring them if they're not qualified, right? But just some people think like, okay, I hired someone who's black or LGBTQ or Hispanic. Well, they must not be qualified.

No, you're not gonna hire them unless they're qualified, right? So the DEI doesn't mean hiring less qualified people. It just means finding people that- They're more diverse. Yeah, or just, they happen to be diverse, right? You're looking at other people, right? Because you can be as diverse as you want you can be LGBTQ trans black and Hispanic

But if you're not qualified qualified, you're not getting hired, right? That doesn't do you any good, right? But I want to go where other people aren't looking and then once you hire them the E is equity, right? It means I'm gonna put you in a position to succeed. I hired your ass, right? Of course, I'm just trying to put you in a position Yeah. Yeah, and then the, what we're talking about is just, I'm going to let you be you, right? And so being inclusive means if you're LGBTQ, if you're trans, I don't give a fuck as long as you're good, right? You don't have to do the job. I don't care.

Yeah, I don't care, right? You can be a lumberjack. I don't care, right? You can walk around singing a lumberjack song. I don't care. Right. But you know, I want to make sure people in the workplace in the organization respect that. Yeah. Right. If you know, you're a boy and you want to call yourself Sue. I don't care. Right. People are going to call you Sue. And some people, they use it as an excuse if they don't get a job. Right. Right. Oh, it must be DEI. But no. I mean, and- I didn't think you were qualified for the position.

Either you're qualified or you're not, right? And once you get there, just because you were hired and you're diverse, doesn't mean you're getting a promotion. Right. Doesn't mean you're getting the next job. And to me, that's what DEI is, and that's why I've been a big supporter. I want to get you out of here on this one. Mark, how hard, because you got married after you had already had some some paper major

paper how would you able to tell that you know what she loves me for being market or do we ever do you really know yeah of course you know I mean she'll let you hit you with the Dutch oven no I made her I made her go to what to oh my god spacing out what the fuck the little burgers White Castle, right? What I made her go to what that was the test before we got married. And so I'm going we're going to White Castle because I went to school in Indiana White Castle were everywhere right? Yes.

And so I was like we're going to White Castle. And if you really love you eat a White Castle burger. She did. – Wow. Give me three things that you tell your kids. Because obviously, you want your kids to be productive citizens, you don't want to hand them everything. So what are some of the advice that you give your kids? Because obviously, they know who you are. They know what you have, so what they have. So number one is when your friends get drunk, nobody cares, right? When you get drunk because you're my kid, you're on the front page of the paper and you're all over social media. So always pay attention to where you're at and what you're doing and be respectful, right? Number two, you've got to set your own path.

You know, you've got to understand that as you get older, you're gonna want to define your own future. So you're gonna have to do the work. Like I literally just work with my son and note to that effect. And then just generally, right? And I say this to all kids, and all people, right, to be successful you have to be curious because the world's always changing.

You have to be agile because the world's always changing. And then I also have a couple of really stupid sayings, right, and you asked for three, but I'm going to go further. Number one is how you do anything is how you do everything, right, applies to sports and I think it applies to life, right? And I'll leave it at that one because that's probably the most important because most people, they'll cut every corner that they can

and I don't want them to cut corners because they don't have to worry about money. Is it true that you don't have a shelf, a maid, a butler? I don't have, we have a maid, right? So when I traveled, I've got different places. I don't have anything there, right? So when I travel, you know, I've got different places. I don't have anything there, right? So I'll do my own laundry, I'll make my own food. Really?

Yeah, so it's like, I have a little shithole in Manhattan Beach in LA, because it's close to the ocean and I hang. So yeah, I'll get my own food there. If I'm in New York, we have an apartment there, I do my own thing there. Yeah, but we do. That's good enough for us, Mark.

Yeah, but I do. In Dallas, right, we have somebody who cooks my food because I try to eat healthy and my wife makes it for everybody else, but she cooks her own food. But we do have people to clean the house. It's 22,000 square feet. We ain't cleaning that shit. Yeah, you're right. Last question, and I'm going to get you out of this. Anthony Edwards and Magic Johnson, Ant-Man said, basically, Michael Jordan was really the only skilled guy back then. So it was even long story short, Magic said look I ain't taking down, listen nobody they won no titles. No titles right? No level. Good for Magic right? Good for Magic. So what are your

thoughts on that? Because you know Magic, I've known Magic 25 years, you probably know him a little better than I do, but I've never heard magic go back at somebody like that. He's always super sweet. There's magic. Yeah, right. That was Irving. Right. Right. That was Irving. Right. And it's not like anybody else has brought the sky hook to the game either. Right. You know, with Kareem. And so look, you know, and that's his vibe, right? He's going to talk, he's going to talk shit. He's going to stir things up. So I respect that. I mean, he's been great for the NBA because he's just got a great energy to him, right? And he's a social media kid, right? He grew up with that, so that's the way it works. But yeah, Magic was right in going back at him. I'm glad he did. Mark Cuban, ladies and gentlemen.

This is great. Great job, man. I really enjoyed it. Appreciate that. Awesome. That was a lot of fun. All my life, been grinding all my life. Sacrifice, hustle pay the price. Want a slice, got to roll the dice. That's why all my life I been grinding all my life. All my life, been grinding all my life. Sacrifice, hustle pay the price.

Want a slice, got to roll the dice. That's why all my life I been grinding all my life. Want a slice, got the ball and dice That's why, all my life the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast today. We're talking sports, politics, pop culture, entertainment, and anything that catches my attention. Listen to the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ever wonder what it takes to be a professional athlete or how the best in the sport are taking those skills to elevate women's sports to a whole new level? I'm Tiffany Oshinsky, host of League One Volleyball's podcast, Serving Pancakes. Get ready for some unfiltered analysis and authentic conversations about the sport itself and what it takes to stand on the podium.

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