Mark Cuban

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L.G.: What gets you out of bed in the morning, and what makes you enthused?

M.C.: All of it. I love challenges. I love challenging conventional wisdom. I love the satisfaction of being right and the motivation of being wrong.

L.G.: Aside from bad officiating against the Mavs, what makes you mad?

M.C.: I’m not a big fan of politicians and politics or bureaucrats in general, but generally, the only time I raise my voice is at a Mavs game. People always expect me to be volatile or outrageous, but I save it all for Mavs games or when I’m playing basketball. That’s when I let it all come out. It used to be during rugby games, when I played, but when I couldn’t play any longer, the Mavs became my outlet. What cracks up my friends and family is that they knew that I was the same way before I bought the team. I would be just as crazy, if not more so back then. There just weren’t any cameras pointed at me back then.

L.G.: What makes you scared? What do you lose sleep over?

M.C.: My family’s health.

L.G.: What’s going on with the Chicago Cubs?  The Tribune Co.has put the Cubs on the block as part of its agreement with Trib buyer Sam Zell, and last month you put yourself in the running to buy the team by submitting an application to Major League Baseball  to examine the books. Why would you want to buy the Cubs? The conventional wisdom is that the bidding will start at $600 million and may go as high as $1 billion. Are you seriously moving ahead? Can you afford it? And what, if anything, are you doing to convince Bud Selig and the M.L.B. establishment that, as an owner, you wouldn’t make their lives hell on earth?

M.C.: If I told you, I would have to kill you. I’m sworn to secrecy.

L.G.: Since you bought the Dallas Mavericks  in 2000 with $280 million of your Yahoo cash, you’ve turned the team from a ragtag bunch of losers into one of America’s more exciting sports franchises—and turned yourself into a brand-name celebrity. You’ve spent untold millions on players and facilities, and you’ve demonstrated brilliant showmanship and won over the fans. But are you making money? In general, can one make big bucks by owning a professional sports team—or is it more a vanity play for rich guys?

M.C.: I can make as much money as I want to from the Mavs. There is a tradeoff, however, between losing and maximizing tradeoffs. As I have said, my emotional release is with the Mavs, so winning is more important to me than making money. That said, I should make a few shekels this year.

L.G.: Given your storied antagonism for the refs of the N.B.A. and your sometimes fractious relationship with Commissioner David Stern—who has fined you approximately $1.5 million for voicing expletive-laced opinions on and off the court—the recent gambling scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy might have been a golden opportunity for you to say “I told you so.” Instead, as soon as the scandal broke, you expressed your “complete confidence” in Stern to “proactively put in place people, processes, and transparency that will forever silence those who will question the N.B.A.’s integrity,” and you added that “the N.B.A. and our officiating will be all the stronger for it.” Hey, Mark, what gives? Are you a changed man?

M.C.: Nope. I’ve said and done what I have said and done. There is no reason to rehash it. My goal has always been to make the league better, better as a business and better as a product for the fans. It makes no sense to look back. I think it’s smarter to take the hand you are dealt and make the most of it.

L.G.: On your blog, you seemed to suggest that Barry Bonds’ use of steroids shouldn’t detract from his accomplishment of breaking Hank Aaron’s non-steroid-enhanced home run record. “In 25 years, any controversy associated with Barry’s quest for the record will be long forgotten,” you wrote. What are you saying here? That in order to achieve our goals in this competitive world, we are justified in exploiting any advantage at our disposal, even if it’s against the rules? Where does one draw the line?

M.C.: I’m saying that the media tries to make a big issue out of things most fans couldn’t care less about. Back when Babe Ruth set the mark, there were allegations of every sort to explain why he was able to do things no other player was.

When my kids or grandkids look back on Barry Bonds, they will know him as the home run champ. They won’t invest the energy to try to find out what the context of the record was any more than any of us explore the context of when Ruth broke the record.

In reference to exploiting any means possible, that is an individual’s choice. Each person lives with the decisions they make. The only certainty is that no one really cares about how and why others, whether it’s Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, or you‑name‑it, make the decisions they make, because they are nothing more or less than entertainers to us.

Just because the media depends on glorifying it for ratings and sales, doesn’t make it anything more than it really is. All you have to do is ask when a scandal had a negative impact on a sport or entertainment business. It certainly hasn’t been during the digital era of ultracompetitive media.

L.G.: How have you been spending your time in the Caymans? How’s the new hip?

M.C.: Hip is great. I’m working out every day. Two months in, and the only thing I can’t do is run, dunk, or cut with the ball like Barry Sanders :). I only wish I would have done it sooner.

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