Why Did Mark Cuban Buy the Mavs?
Here’s the story of how and why Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks.
The Dallas Mavericks were trash in the 90s.
They barely won any games and didn’t make the playoffs once between 1991 and 2000.
But it wasn’t as if they didn’t try things to improve. They changed up their coaches every other season and tried to bring on skilled players through the draft, free agency and trades.
But nothing worked. The Mavs just couldn’t get better.
So, why did Mark Cuban want to buy the team?
Well, it’s because he saw potential in the Dallas Mavericks -his favorite team- and felt he could manage the organization better than the then-owner.
“I was a season-ticket holder in the 99-2000 season,” Cuban told Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the Knuckleheads podcast. “That was when we had Shawn Bradley, and [Michael] Finley, and [Steve] Nash and Dirk [Nowitzki], but everybody still thought we were trash. It was just like, ‘dude, we’re undefeated. It’s the start of the season, and there’s nobody here, nothing, and I was like, ‘I can do a better job than this because the guy who owned it didn’t care about basketball at all.”
However, just because you think (and possibly know) you can run an NBA team doesn’t mean you have the funds and resources to purchase a team.
For example, I think I can run the Toronto Raptors better than Bobby Webster and Masai Ujiri because I’ve led the team to an NBA championship in 2k.
It doesn’t mean I have the funds or resources to buy the Raptors. And I don’t because I spend all of my time playing 2k instead of working on this newsletter.
So, how did Cuban go about getting the $285 million to buy the Mavericks?
He said he used the earnings from his Yahoo stock.
“I just made a lot of fucking money,” he told Richardson and Miles. “At that point, I remember being on the bus with Del Harris. It was like, ‘How did you pay so much money?’ Because it was the number one price paid for any team at the time… And I’m like, ‘Del, I got this Yahoo stock that I’ve kind of covered to protect myself, so [as long as] it doesn’t go down. But that shit just went up 100 bucks today. That paid for it. Just the stock, in one day, paid for buying the team.”
Under Cuban’s ownership, the Mavs went to the NBA Finals twice and, in 2011, won the Championship.
They also developed one of the greatest players ever in Dirk Nowitzki, who was the 2007 MVP, is a Hall of Famer and is on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
Cuban sold his majority stake in 2023 and is currently a minority owner of the team.
Additionally, he is not involved in the day-to-day decision making anymore (hence, the Luka Doncic trade, which is a story for another day).
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Now, back to the story…
Random Thought
So, it looks like Gregg Popovich is not coming back to coach the San Antonio Spurs this season.
He may not come back to coach at all.
And this sucks because he’s a legendary coach. But at the same time, he’s gotta do what’s best for his health and I wish him a speedy recovery and good health for the rest of his life.
However, if Popovich doesn’t come back, who would be a good successor?
Should the Spurs go out and hire the best available candidate or should they hire someone from Popovich’s coaching tree?
I think they should keep it in the family because the Spurs have a unique team culture that only former Spurs’ players and coaches understand.
So, who should they get?
Mike Brown might be available in the offseason. They could also name Brett Brown, who’s currently an assistant with them, their head coach. Or should they name Mitch Johnson, the interim head coach, the head coach?
What do you think?
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