Mark Cuban

Ownership


On January 14, 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA Dallas Mavericks basketball team for $285 million from H. Ross Perot, Jr. Since his purchase, the Mavericks have gone from long-time league doormats to NBA championship contenders.

In the 20 years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavs had a winning percentage of only 40%, and playoff record of 21-32. The team had never advanced beyond early rounds in the playoffs. In the six years following, the team has won 69% of their regular season games and have reached the playoffs each season. The Mavs playoff record with Cuban is 39 wins and 40 losses, including their first trip to the NBA Finals in which they lost to the Miami Heat.

Historically, NBA team owners publicly play more passive roles and watch basketball games from skyboxes; Cuban sits alongside fans while donning team jerseys. Cuban is flys his private airplane, a Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream V to attend away games. His ownership has been described by the media as the ultimate fan fantasy, successfully coming true

NBA policy maverick

Cuban's ownership has been the source of extensive media attention and controversy involving league policies.

Cuban has been fined by the NBA, mostly for critical statements about the league and referees, at least $1,665,000 for 13 incidents. In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban, "He's got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game. I don't think that helps us.... He sits right there by our bench. I think it's a bit much. But we all told him this before. It's nothing new. The game starts, and he's already yelling at them. So he needs to know how to control himself a little."

In an interview with the Associated Press, Cuban said that he matches NBA fines with charitable donations of equal amounts. In a nationally publicized incident, he criticized the league's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush saying that he, "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen." When Dairy Queen management took offense, Cuban worked for a day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where fans lined up in the street to get a Blizzard from the owner of the Mavericks.

During the 2005-06 NBA season, Cuban started a booing campaign when former Maverick player Michael Finley returned to play against the Mavs as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. In a playoff series between the Mavericks and Spurs, Cuban cursed Spurs forward Bruce Bowen. and was fined $200,000 by the NBA for rushing onto the court and criticizing NBA officials. After the 2006 NBA Finals, Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA for repeated misconduct following the Mavericks' loss to the Miami Heat in Game Five of the 2006 NBA Finals.

In February 2007, Cuban publicly criticized NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade, and declared that he would get fined if he made any comments about what he thought really happened in the 2006 NBA Finals.

Source: Wikipedia