Alumnus wins NBA title, looks to future ventures

Mark Cuban strived to do anything possible to not think about potential outcomes on the court at American Airlines Arena on June 12 in Miami. The Dallas Mavericks owner instead found solace in soda.

“I refused to let myself think that we were closing in on a championship,” Cuban said. “Every timeout, no matter the score, I would try to find some way to divert my attention. I was devouring Diet Cokes. Anything to try not to let my mind race ahead to what it would be like if we won.”

In the game’s final minute and a half, Cuban finally felt secure about his team’s lead.
“It wasn’t until we were up by 10 or so with 90 seconds to play that I could let out all that stress and just soak up the moment,” Cuban said. “On the broadcast of the game you could see me just yelling at the top of my lungs as the clock was winding down.
“That was an entire season’s worth of stress being let loose and the door opening up for me to live in the moment.”

As Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki triumphantly hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy, the scene confirmed the IU graduate’s first championship as an owner.

His Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat, the same team that won four straight games against them in 2006 to claim the first NBA Championship for South Florida.

Cuban graduated from the School of Business (now the Kelley School of Business) in 1981. He said IU has had an indelible impact on his success.

“IU taught me how to learn,” Cuban said. “The ability to continue to learn and to enjoy learning is a key life skill that has really helped me.”

According to a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Cuban “saw the potential of the Internet long before most of us even knew what it was.” After he graduated, he moved to Dallas where he was hired to sell personal computers.

With $500 that he persuaded a customer to loan him, Cuban founded Micro Solutions, a firm he eventually sold to CompuServe for $6 million.

In 1995, he and a friend from college started another company, Audionet.

In 1999, the company, then called Broadcast.com, sold for $5.7 billion in Yahoo! stock.
He bought the Mavericks for $285 million on Jan. 4, 2000.

Thirty years after graduating, Cuban’s only association with IU is following their sports teams, albeit at a distance. Cuban wrote in his blog he wouldn’t give money to his alma mater until they withdraw from the NCAA.

“I’m obviously proud of IU,” he said. “But other than following the sports teams, I don’t have the time I used to for getting involved.”

He does see the IU basketball program as having taken a recent big step forward this summer with the hiring of Calbert Cheaney as director of basketball operations.
“Cal will be great for IU,” Cuban said. “He has IU running through his blood. He did a lot of great things for the Golden State Warriors that I’m sure he will be able to translate to IU basketball.”

Looking ahead, Cuban said he wants to be “greedy” and  get as many NBA championships as he can. However, with the NBA in the midst of a lockout, he told TMZ he would be interested in buying the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Despite the Dodgers’ current financial situation, Cuban said owning an MLB team is currently a long shot. Instead, he and his staff are devising a plan to eliminate college football’s Bowl Championship Series.

“I have people working full time on it,” he said. “We won’t change the {college football] world overnight, but I think we are setting the right foundation.”