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

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

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