Mark Cuban Explained How He Learned ‘Meddling’ As An Owner From Jerry Jones

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Mark Cuban has never been shy as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks since he bought the team in 2000. No owner has produced more soundbites (or has been fined more) than Cuban since he came into the league.

Cuban’s brashness is something that concerned owners when he was coming into the league, and as he remembers it, they voiced those concerns to him. Specifically, there were some that saw him as similar to Dallas’ other owner Jerry Jones, another brash owner that has a tendency to speak out and make headlines, which isn’t something that has been traditionally what sports owners do.

In an upcoming episode of Open Court on NBA TV that premieres at 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday night featuring a roundtable of owners with Cuban, Joe Lacob, Dan Gilbert, Jeannie Buss, Tony Ressler, and Steve Ballmer, Cuban and Buss reflected on when he was first coming into the NBA and how Jim Buss helped back him among other skeptical owners.

Specifically, Cuban discussed his “meddling” as an owner and laughed about how he absolutely wanted to be like Jerry Jones when he came in the league, despite concern from other owners, having seen how successful Jones’ Cowboys were in the 90s.

“I like to think I invented meddling, but Jerry Jones actually did,” Cuban said. “It was funny, I remember Dave Checketts, who was running the Knicks at the time, asking me if ‘you were going to be like that other owner in Dallas.’ And this was in the end of 1999, and I’m like, ‘I hope so. He’s selling a whole lot of tickets and just won three championships.’ They really were vocal in their expectation that I would be quiet. Really your dad…”

“My dad went to bat for you because he was very similar to you in ’79 when he was trying to get in,” Buss said. “You guys were about the same age, that there were a lot of owners that were not in the league. But I do have to comment that, I’m glad you’re in the league, but we did have to change some rules. We had to say, as an owner, you can’t sign yourself. So we had to add that rule, the Mark Cuban rule, so that you couldn’t sit on the bench with your team in a uniform.”

It’s a funny back-and-forth between the two in what is overall an interesting conversation. Owners so often stay out of the spotlight, well the ones that aren’t Cuban, but to have these six together provided an interesting look into the mindset of NBA owners and what they view as their role with the team beyond being the people with the money.

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