Mark Cuban Essay

Mark Cuban was born July 31, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Cuban's parents were Shirley and Norton Cuban. Cuban's father, Norton, spent nearly half a century working at a car upholstery shop. Cuban's grandfather, Morris Chobanisky, emigrated from Russia and fed his family by selling merchandise out of the back of a truck to help feed his family. Cuban's grandfather changed his last name from Chabenisky to Cuban after they had landed on Ellis Island. Cuban was always interested in sales at a young age. When he was 11 years old, he was successful in selling garbage bags door to door. Later on, he added other goods to his inventory. In high school, he earned extra dollars anyway he could, mainly by becoming a stamp and coin salesman. His family

had a history of selling things, from his grandfather to his father.
Mark Cuban went to Mount Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh, where he was there until his junior year. Mark Cuban only went to high school for less than three years. During his junior year of high school, Cuban dropped out of high school due to the reason that he wasn't allowed to take an economics course that was intended for seniors. Cuban then finished the rest of his high school coursework by attending night school at the University of Pittsburgh while living in a fraternity house. After he finished his high school work, he decided he wanted to attend business school. So, Cuban decided to go to Indiana University. Cuban used his own money to pay tuition at Indiana University. Cuban took MBA (Master of Business Administration) courses while he was an undergraduate. He did that until he was caught, since it was illegal for an undergraduate to take MBA courses. While in college, Mark Cuban put his business sense into work. Cuban bought a bar at Indiana University that was later closed by authorities because of illegal activities. Cuban also worked as a dance instructor, having previously studied several forms of dance. Cuban made so good money from doing those things in college. Mark Cuban ended up graduating from Indiana with his B.S. (Bachelor of Science) in business in 1981.
After college, Mark Cuban returned to Pittsburgh, his home town, and spent a year working at Mellon Bank as a computer systems integrator. Experience allowed Cuban to learn a lot about computers and how they worked. Cuban didn't want to stay in Pittsburgh the rest of his life, so he decided he needed to move. In 1982, Cuban decided to move to Dallas, since several of his college friend lived there. While in Dallas, Cuban spent a year selling software for Your Business Software. While working there, Cuban became the company's best salesman. Cuban then decided to go into computer business, teaching himself how to write computer programs along the way. In 1983, Cuban became the co-founder of Microsolutions, a systems integration consulting, computer retailing, and computer networking firm. Cuban had seven years of success while being the boss of Microsolutions. At the end of those seven years, Microsolutions was mainly focused primarily on system integration. Then, Microsolutions was bought by CompuServe in 1990. Cuban continued to work with the company. For a brief period, Cuban served as president of the renamed company, CompuServe Systems Integration Group. In 1991, Cuban ended up selling out of the company for about $3 million and then retired for several years. During the years that Cuban was retired, he traveled, played the stock market, and briefly lived in California. While living in California, he studied acting and appeared in a handful of movies. After living in California for a while, Cuban returned to Dallas to work. In 1995, Cuban and his friend Todd Wagner co-founded what was first called AudioNet. The reason that Cuban and Wagner created AudioNet was because they wanted to listen to Indiana University basketball games in Dallas. Using a radio, PC, and high speed phone line, Cuban and Wagner came up with the idea behind AudioNet. Cuban and Wagner aimed to change broadcasting by transmitting such audio broadcast over the Internet for faraway spots fans. AudioNet was successful from the beginning. In 1998, AudioNet had changed their name to broadcast.com, and visual transmissions were also added to the website. Broadcast.com broadcasted from 400 stations, including NHL, MLB, and 130 college games. The website also transmitted 55 television and cable systems. The website ended up making most of its revenue from business teleconferencing. Broadcast.com also handled stockholder share meeting, business meetings, and related speeches. Even though the idea behind broadcast.com was very simple, the visual broadcast quality was still poor in the late 1990s. Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's company had very little competition and was a world leader in the field. Cuban served as a chair and CEO of broadcast.com, focusing on the tech and marketing aspects of the business. Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner decided that the company should go public, and it did. Broadcast.com went public in July of 1998. Then, broadcast.com then was sold to Yahoo! in April of 1999. Broadcast.com was sold for $5.7 billion. By the year 2000, Cuban was worth at least $1.5 billion, even though some estimates put the figure over $2 billion. While Cuban was still working at broadcast.com, he wanted to spend his new wealth on something bigger, a professional sports team.
Cuban was looking for a professional sports team that was struggling, so that he could build the team back up again.

The first team that Cuban looked to buy was the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL, who were going through bankruptcy at the time. Cuban wasn't able to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he bought another professional team. In early 2000, Cuban purchased about 70 percent of the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. Before Cuban was the owner of the Mavericks, he was a season ticket holder to Dallas Mavericks home games. Cuban had bought the team from Ross Perot Jr., who was the owner at the time. Cuban spent a lot of time and money into the Dallas Mavericks franchise. When Cuban bought the team, the Mavericks were plagued by poor personnel decisions and mediocre players and coaches. The team had experienced more than a decade of non-playoff basketball games. Cuban used his new role to immediately change that. Cuban outfitted the Mavericks with the best of everything, including hotels, meals, and special court-side seating. Cuban was also a very hands-on owner, traveling and occasionally practicing with the team. His enthusiasm was infectious and the Mavericks did improve greatly, but was fined several times by the NBA for criticizing officials. Cuban was once fined nearly $500,000 by the NBA at the end of the 2000-01 season. Cuban made a lot of big decisions with his team. The first year he owned the team; the Mavericks made the playoffs and were led by star players Dirk

Nowitzki and Steve Nash. Then the next season, the Mavericks had 57 wins, setting a team record for most wins in a season at the time. In the 2002-03 season, the Mavericks had 60 wins. In 2006, the Mavericks made it to the NBA Finals, but ended up losing to the Miami Heat. But, in 2011, the Mavericks made it to the NBA Finals again, and they ended up beating the Miami Heat. Over the years, Cuban has had many great players on his team like: Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Tim Hardaway, Avery Johnson (who became the Mavericks coach during the 2004-05 season), Juwan Howard, Danny Manning, Raja Bell, Josh Howard, Antawn Jamison, Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Terry, Jose Barea, Brandon Bass, Jason Kidd (who is currently the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks), Shawn Marion, Caron Butler, Brian Cardinal, Tyson Chandler, Vince Carter, Lamar Odom, Delonte West, Elton Brand, Darren Collison, Derek Fisher, Chris Kaman, O.J. Mayo, DeJuan Blair, Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Monta Ellis, Shane Larkin, Richard Jefferson, Raymond Felton, and Jameer Nelson. Cuban's Maverick teams have been good, through the years, having some of the best records in the NBA. The results of each season that Cuban owned the team were: 53, 57, 60, 52, 58, 60, 67, 51, 50, 55, 57, 36 (shortened season due to NBA lockout), 41, and 49. The best season, record wise, that the Mavericks had was the 2006-07 season when the Mavericks went 67-15. The Mavericks have gone to the playoffs every year that Cuban has owned the team except the 2012-13 season, when the Mavericks went 41-41. Under the ownership of Mark Cuban, the Mavericks have gone to two NBA Finals, losing in the 2005-06 season and winning in the 2010-11 season. The Mavericks have also had 17 selections to the NBA All-Star game, with Dirk Nowitzki having the most with 12 straight, starting in the 2001-02 season to the 2013-14 season. The have been three coach's under Mark Cuban, Don Nelson, Avery Johnson, and Rick Carlisle, who is the current coach. Cuban has been a very successful NBA owner since he has bought the team. Cuban's players have regarded him as a great boss who took a hands-on role in decisions and made sure his team was happy. Cuban also likes to be with the fans. Instead of sitting in the nice box areas where owners usually sit, Cuban likes to sit with the fans. Cuban also shows himself to be the Mavericks biggest booster. Cuban has also been fined many times over the years by the NBA.
Mark Cuban has amassed more than $2 million in NBA fines. Cuban has been fined 13 times by the NBA, for things like criticizing the officials during the game, or yelling and cursing at players on the opposing team. Cuban is a very outspoken owner, and is usually in the news for either something he said of something he did. A notable time when Cuban was criticizing opposing players was when the Mavericks where playing the Denver Nuggets in the 2009 playoffs. Cuban called the Nuggets players dirty and called them thugs. One of the Nuggets players mom's, Kenyon Martin, was sitting close to Cuban during the game. After the game was over, Cuban walked past Martin's mom and said to her, "that includes your son," by calling the Nuggets players thugs. The controversial comment put Cuban into the news again, but Cuban issued an apology the next day say that it was poor treatment by him to the Denver Nuggets fans. Cuban was not fined by the NBA, even though many people thought he should be. One of the most notable times that Cuban was fined was in 2010. In 2010, every NBA team was trying to get one of the best players in the NBA, LeBron James. Cuban was fined $100,000 for violating anti-tampering rules when he tried to get a sign-and-trade deal with the Cleveland Cavilers to get LeBron James. That didn't work out, and LeBron James ended up signing with the Miami Heat. That season, James leading the Heat, got to the NBA Finals and faced the Mavericks. The Mavericks were huge underdogs, since had three of the best players in the NBA, James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. Despite the odds, the Mavericks won the series in 6 games, and Dirk Nowitzki was named the NBA Finals MVP. Despite being the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban has done many other things.
Mark Cuban has also been active in the MLB.

After success with the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban wanted to buy a professional baseball team; with the wealth he had gain from owning the Mavericks. In 2008, he submitted an initial bid of $1.3 million to buy the Chicago Cubs, but was not successful and the Cubs were bought by someone else. Also, in 2010, Cuban actively tried to buy the Texas Rangers. Cuban ended up bidding as high as $600 million, but he was unsuccessful again. Cuban was persistent, as he again tried to buy another professional baseball team. This time it was the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cuban said that he wouldn't bid any higher than $1 billion to buy the Dodgers. Again, Cuban was unsuccessful as the team was sold to Guggenheim Baseball Management for $2.15

billion.
In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio launched a weekly call-in show, called the Mark Cuban's Radio Maverick. The show didn't last long, due to low ratings. In 2007, Cuban used his dance training in college when he was on the show Dancing with the Stars. Along with friend Todd Wagner, Wagner/Cuban Companies own several production companies like: 2929 Productions, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Landmark Theaters, and Magnolia Pictures. Mark Cuban has also appeared on the entrepreneur-seeking television show called Shark Tank. On the show, Cuban, along with other billionaires, evaluates ambitious entrepreneurs, their products, and their business plans. If they like the entrepreneurs and their product, then they will give them money and help their company grow larger and gain more revenue. Cuban has also been an executive producer in several movies, including The Road, Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as The Jacket. Cuban has also written a book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, and that book chronicles his life experiences in business and sports.
Cuban also has a charity called the Mark Cuban Foundation. Through the Mark Cuban Foundation, he was a supporter of the Fallen Patriot Fund, which helped families of military personal killed or injured during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Cuban pledged to match donations dollar for dollar. Cuban ended up giving $1 million to the Fallen Patriot Fund. Cuban's foundation is run by him and his brother, Brian Cuban.
With the success the Mavericks have had under Cuban, the team's value has gone up. According to Forbes, the Mavericks are now the eighth-most valuable team in the NBA, worth $765 million. As the Mavericks value has gone up, so has Cuban's. In 2014, Cuban was worth a net worth of $2.6 billion. Cuban as has a family. Cuban lives in the Dallas area with his wife, Tiffany Cuban, daughters Alexis (born in 2005) and Alyssa (born in 2007), and son Jake (born in 2010). Cuban has been married to his wife since 2002. Cuban and his family live in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas, in a 24,000-sqaure-foot mansion.
Cuban has been very successful since he bought the Mavericks, but not so much for the other companies he did work with. CompuServe is still around and is now an internet search engine by is powered by Google. On the other hand, Yahoo! didn't fare so well. When Yahoo! bought AudioNet from Mark Cuban, they didn't know what to do with it. So AudioNet ended up failing with Yahoo! since they couldn't figure out a use for it. Mark Cuban wanted to own a professional team because he thought that he could turn a bad team into a good one. That's what Mark Cuban has done with the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks were struggling when Cuban bought the team, but now, the Mavericks are one of the best team in the NBA.