Mark Cuban's youthful appearance, drive and exuberance have changed little since, at age 41, he signed a letter of intent to purchase the Mavericks on Jan. 3, 2000.
In reality, he is now 50, a married father of two girls, has an artificial left hip and according to Forbes, is at least $137 million lighter in the wallet where the Mavericks are concerned. The franchise that produced a ghastly 240-550 regular-season record during the 1990s, is a diametrically opposite 539-251 under Cuban. Tonight is playoff game No. 93 of the Cuban era, which has produced one trip to the NBA Finals (2006) and another to the conference finals (2003).
Cuban emphasizes that his commitment to the franchise hasn't changed, but admits that losses don't weigh on him as long as they did before he had daughters Alexis and Alyssa.
According to Forbes, the Mavericks lost $13.6 million last year, and 10 times that since he has owned the team. Cuban declined to confirm or debunk the figures.
However much he's lost, it seems to be a minor concern to Cuban, whose net worth according to Forbes' most recent ranking was $2.3 billion.
Despite past frustrations with the league that caused him to consider selling, he sees more ownership decades in the Cuban family's future.
"Unless the league does something so stupid that I can't deal with it, then I don't see any reason why my kids and grandkids and their grandkids can't own it."
DMN
7:30 p.m., today (Ch. 21, NBATV)
