By 
The last time we heard from Mark Cuban here on SRI he was discussing the Dallas Mavericks off-season plans. Now with the NBA season back into full swing coming off the lockout, the Mavs owner sounds confident that his team will be able to pick up their play in the second half of the season. The NBA lockout has changed the spectrum of the season as Cuban has devised a plan with his team to rest certain starters throughout the season to keep their legs fresh, one of those starters being Dirk Nowitzki.
Cuban is also known as a brilliant businessman who’s claim to fame came during the internet boom then he bought the Dallas Mavericks and turned them into an NBA Championship franchise is a very short time. For a man that knows a thing or two about running a successful business he gives his take on the next big opportunity on the market.
Mark Cuban joined Fox Sports Radio with Daybreak to discuss Dirk Nowitzki’s four day sabbatical, the reason why he bought the Dallas Mavericks, the secret to being a successful business man, trying to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers and the next big financial opportunity in the economy.
Dirk Nowitzki is going on a four day sabbatical. How do you feel about that?
“He’ll be fine. In this season it’s just crazy with the number of games in the compressed schedule, so Jason Kidd already had a few days off. Vince Carter is getting some time off. Now it’s Dirk’s turn. We are fine. We just want to make sure he has got his legs going into the second half of the season.”
Why did you buy the Dallas Mavericks? What was the reason behind it?
“I was a season ticket holder and it was the 1999-2000 season and opening night we were playing the Golden State Warriors and we weren’t close to being sold out. There was no energy in the building. I was like you know what, I’m excited about this season. If I owned this team I could do a better job and boom. I was like ‘Wow. Now I can put my money where my mouth is.’ I got a hold of Mark Aguirre who was connected to then owner, Ross Perot Jr., and we hooked it up. The rest is history.”
What does it take to be a successful business man?
“The key is just preparation. It’s no different than if you are in the sports world. I’ll have these conversations with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd where you are talking about getting ready to play the full 48 minutes. In the business world, business is the sport. You have to be ready 24-by-7-by-365 because you are not only competing with the people you know about, but you are competing with people who might get into your business and so you always have to be working. You always have to be preparing. You always have to be competing knowing someone is out there trying to kick your ass. If you do the work and do the preparation and when you walk into the room you know more about your business, you know more about your industry than anybody else. Then you have a chance to win. If you don’t, then someone is going to kick your ass.”
What’s the hold up now with baseball? You wanted to buy the Cubs. Now it’s the Dodgers. Are you being blackballed?
“No. Not at all. Not at all. There’s one owner that doesn’t like me in baseball, but everybody else I am cool with. I can’t go into details on the Dodgers, but we’ll see what happens.”
What is the next great financial opportunity for us all right now?
“Right now there is just a lot of different things going on that is internet based. The next big, big thing I think is going to be personalized medicine. If you just think about it the concept that the 3 of us all take the same Aspirin or Advil, when our bodies are all completely different. Our kids – maybe it’ll take into their grandkids – my grandkids, your grandkids come along and say ‘Grandad why would you all take the same medicine? That’s crazy.’ You just look at the warning label and it says you might be the one unlucky schmo who might die from taking this. What’s going to happen in the future is the reality is that our bodies are like a big math equation. As the progress gets faster, faster and faster we’ll be able to look at the DNA – our equations of our own bodies – match them up with the medicines and pop out personalized medicine. To me that’ll be the next big, big, big, big deal that impacts all of our lives.”
Comments