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Mark Cuban
www.dallasmavs.com
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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (seen here lambasting an NBA referee)
has perhaps the highest profile of any of the new breed of young
sports franchise owners, having succeeded spectacularly in turning
around the former NBA doormat Mavericks while simultaneously
becoming the darling of network sportscasters.
Now one of the wealthiest men in the country, with - as ABC News puts it -
"more money than Oprah, slightly less than Donald Trump," Mark
grew up in Pittsburgh and attended Indiana University.
After college, without even owning a computer and never having studied them,
he started his own computer consulting firm, MicroSolutions, Inc.,
getting business by saying "yes" to whatever his clients asked of him -
then staying up all night learning how to accomplish the tasks.
In 1990, Mark became a millionaire by selling the company to CompuServe.
In 1995, he and an old college buddy, both starved for Indiana basketball
that they could rarely see in their Dallas homes, came up with the idea
of broadcasting regional radio and TV stations over the Internet.
Broadcast.com soon had half a million people tuning in. A few short years
later, it was purchased by Yahoo!, and Mark now found himself a billionaire
with nothing to do.
He occupied his time by buying a 24,000-square-foot mansion in Dallas
and setting a record for the largest online purchase when he paid
$41 million for a corporate jet via the Internet.
Last year, Mark spent another $280 million -- this time to buy the Dallas Mavericks.
Since Mark took over, the Mavs have made one of the most dramatic turnarounds in
recent memory, and this year will break a 10-year playoff dry spell. It has come
at a price, though, as he has been fined almost $400,000 (so far) by the
league office for various infractions, such as berating referees and sitting in
the area meant for players and coaches.
Here's Mark's list: "The Top 14 Cool Things About Owning an NBA Team"
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