Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks because he thought it would be fun. By the time he sold, he says, it had stopped being about basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went from being about basketball to being about valuations,\u201d Cuban said in an interview<\/a> on The Diary of a CEO on Monday. He added that the shift \u201cjust created more stress.\u201d<\/p>\n But the valuations worked out for him. Cuban bought<\/a> the team for about $285 million in 2000 and sold<\/a> his stake in the team for $3.5 billion in 2024, according<\/a> to ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania. But Cuban says it\u2019s a bit more than that.<\/p>\n \u201c$4.3 [billion],\u201d he said regarding what he made from the Mavericks deal. \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n And he hasn\u2019t left the business. In July he joined<\/a> Harbinger Sports Partners, a $750 million private equity fund that took a minority stake in MLB\u2019s Las Vegas Athletics and uses predictive analytics to size up a team\u2019s ticket prices, sponsorships and local demand: the \u201cSports 2.0\u201d playbook he ran in Dallas, now sold to investors.<\/p>\n Cuban\u2019s Mavs come up<\/p>\n When Mark Cuban initially bought<\/a> the Dallas Mavericks at the turn of the century in January 2000, the franchise had little<\/a> to show for its first two decades in the NBA. The team had endured<\/a> years of losing, struggled<\/a> to attract fans and had been named<\/a> the \u201cworst professional sports franchise.\u201d But what Cuban saw that others didn\u2019t, was an opportunity to turn his passion for basketball into an experiment in teambuilding, technology and customer experience.<\/p>\n \u201cI did it not because it was a business,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cI thought this could just be really fun\u2014and what could be better than going and shooting baskets with Dirk Nowitzki or Steve Nash or Michael Finley?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI looked at it more as an intellectual endeavor, right? An intellectual challenge,\u201d he continued. \u201cCan I take a team that was awful and got voted the worst professional sports franchise of the previous decade and turn it into a winning team? And that was my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n More than two decades later, the Mavericks had won<\/a> an NBA championship, became one of the league\u2019s most valuable franchises and established a reputation for using technology and analytics to improve performance.<\/p>\n Cuban, who made his fortune selling<\/a> the internet radio company Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for approximately $5.7 billion in stock, purchased<\/a> the Mavericks from H. Ross Perot Jr. amidst a struggling decade of basketball.<\/p>\n He said his initial objective was straightforward\u2014build a team that could win. But Cuban\u2019s approach to the franchise was one that differed from that of owners who oftentimes treated sports teams as passive investments: Cuban was a highly visible presence<\/a> at games, engaged directly with fans and players and pushed for changes in his organization.<\/p>\n The culmination came in June 2011, when the Mavericks defeated<\/a> the Miami Heat to win their first NBA championship in franchise history.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you win a championship, the whole city\u2019s on fire,\u201d he said. Cuban described taking the championship trophy to schools, bars, restaurants and his children\u2019s events\u2014solidifying his presence as an owner deeply ingrained in the team culture.<\/p>\n The title also validated the commercial model he built. The Mavs became a successful team, and with that, a stronger entertainment brand and a valuable asset. The franchise went from the eighth lowest valued<\/a> team in 2000 to the seventh most valuable<\/a> team in 2023 before Cuban sold it, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n Back in the valuation business<\/p>\n Cuban joined<\/a> Harbinger Sports Partners as the fund bought into the Athletics, amidst the team\u2019s relocation from Sacramento. The investment gives Cuban an entry into baseball after years of pursuing<\/a> opportunities in MLB. The sports franchise that kicked<\/a> off the \u201cmoneyball\u201d analytics phenomenon now welcomed Cuban as an investor.<\/p>\n Rashaun Williams\u2014Harbinger\u2019s founder, chief investment officer and Cuban\u2019s business partner\u2014previously told<\/a> Fortune in July that the fund evaluates ownership, management and the market where the team operates. He explained that the group\u2019s investment approach uses predictive analytics to assess local demand and a franchise\u2019s ability to command ticket prices, sponsorship revenue and other sales. That emphasis on analytics and commercial opportunity echoes Cuban\u2019s \u201csports 2.0\u201d approach he heralded with the Mavericks.<\/p>\n Williams said that professional sports have entered what the firm\u2014including Cuban\u2014calls \u201cSports 2.0,\u201d an era where teams increasingly resemble media and entertainment companies rather than organizations dependent solely on local fan attendance.<\/p>\n