Speaker 1: My next guest as a host of the hit ABC
Speaker 1: competition show Shark Tank. I'm minority owner of the NBA's
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks and maybe just maybe a presidential candidate for
Speaker 1: the United States of America. Please welcome to the Steven
Speaker 1: Aismith Show. To one and only mister Mark Cuban. What's
Speaker 1: going on, big time? How are you men?
Speaker 2: How's everything?
Speaker 3: It's all good. It's all about you, mister big money.
Speaker 2: I wish, I wish, and please I still don't. I
Speaker 2: still don't make a penny to your dollars. Stop that nonsense.
Speaker 2: Don't even try it. But listen.
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to talk to you right now. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's great to see y'all.
Speaker 2: Hope you will.
Speaker 1: How has life been for you since you've sold the
Speaker 1: majority steak in the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 3: I make's been great. I mean from a personal perspective,
Speaker 3: family perspective, business perspective. You know, we're growing costplus Drugs
Speaker 3: dot Com. My kids, you know, my my freshman my
Speaker 3: son is playing play basketball this season. My daughter got
Speaker 3: a rowing scholarship to she's had me. My oldest is
Speaker 3: in college, having fun. Everybody's healthy. My wife is happy.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is the way it should.
Speaker 1: Be when you think about it. I mean, obviously, you
Speaker 1: own the Dallas Mavericks. The majority owner for the Dallas
Speaker 1: maveris solo for twenty three years.
Speaker 2: For crying out.
Speaker 1: Loud and to give that up. Nobody ever imagined that
Speaker 1: you would do that. Put into your own words why
Speaker 1: you had reached that conclusion and it was time to
Speaker 1: surrender a majority stake of the franchise.
Speaker 3: I mean one family. You know, I was going to
Speaker 3: away games and you know, my kids were getting out
Speaker 3: of school and moving into their own adult lives, and
Speaker 3: you know, I was missing too much of that, which
Speaker 3: is also the reason why I left Shark Tank. You know,
Speaker 3: the NBA has evolved over the last twenty five years
Speaker 3: where it went from being a very entrepreneurial environment where
Speaker 3: if someone like myself came in, you know, ideas were
Speaker 3: welcome to being a really you know, a pe type
Speaker 3: scenario where there were ownership groups. There were private equity
Speaker 3: groups that were buying into teams and owning teams, and
Speaker 3: that kind of changed the dynamic and it really evolved
Speaker 3: so that in order to compete financially, because that's half
Speaker 3: the battle on the court is one thing, but being
Speaker 3: able to compete financially is a big part of it
Speaker 3: as well. It didn't play to my strengths any longer,
Speaker 3: you know. Really, you hear every single team talk about
Speaker 3: real estate and expanding in casinos, and that just wasn't
Speaker 3: my strength. So and then you know the other part
Speaker 3: again going back to family, when you get on social
Speaker 3: media and you listen to kids and you listen to
Speaker 3: adults for that matter, on social media and off, people
Speaker 3: were getting mean, you know, And if I was looking
Speaker 3: forward to, you know, ten years from now, my kids
Speaker 3: taking over, I just that's not where I wanted them
Speaker 3: to be or to go. And you know, you look
Speaker 3: at other teams where kids have taken over. Sometimes it
Speaker 3: works a lot of times it doesn't. And I wanted
Speaker 3: them to fight their own path so or find their
Speaker 3: own path, So it just made sense to self.
Speaker 2: Find their own path is one thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm genuinely asking you this because I'm really interested
Speaker 1: in hearing your response.
Speaker 2: The world is getting ugly.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, And as a guy who's a pundit
Speaker 1: and can be a critic, even I look at it
Speaker 1: and be like you people cross the line. You cross
Speaker 1: the lines I would never even think to cross. What
Speaker 1: the hell's wrong with these people these days? But the
Speaker 1: flip side to it is that knowing the world that
Speaker 1: we're living in, knowing.
Speaker 2: How it's regressing before our very eyes.
Speaker 1: Do you really really believe that you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to shield your children?
Speaker 3: Oh no, I didn't say shield, right, Okay, I never
Speaker 3: said I want them to find their own way. In sports,
Speaker 3: it's a different beast, right. Look, And here's the way
Speaker 3: I explain it. When you win a championship, see that
Speaker 3: guy back there, you know, and in any sport, a
Speaker 3: million people might show up for the prey and they're
Speaker 3: that passionate, and that passion leads to when things are good,
Speaker 3: everybody loves you. When things are not good, it's not
Speaker 3: as nearly as much fun that For me. Okay, I
Speaker 3: grew up, you know, before grew up in this industry,
Speaker 3: before social media, I had a great run. But for
Speaker 3: them to find their own path, they can go wherever
Speaker 3: they want. They may not want to be in the
Speaker 3: middle of the storm, or they might not even be
Speaker 3: want to be a public figure. They might want to
Speaker 3: be very private. One of my kids is like super
Speaker 3: private and hates the idea of, you know, being out
Speaker 3: in the public. So you know, I just I want
Speaker 3: them to be curious about life and find their own path.
Speaker 3: And it's tough when you're the heir apparent for a
Speaker 3: basketball team.
Speaker 1: Now, when you sold your team, the Dallas Mavericks, the
Speaker 1: majority state to the Adamson and the Dumont families in
Speaker 1: December of twenty twenty three, you talked about being a
Speaker 1: minority owner, still maintaining about twenty seven percent if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, and you said that you would pretty much
Speaker 1: be running still running basketball operations that had that clearly
Speaker 1: was not the case because Luka Dotic is going I'll
Speaker 1: get into that in a second.
Speaker 2: But what happened to that role?
Speaker 1: You were supposed to be play a row of running
Speaker 1: basketball operations?
Speaker 2: What happened to that?
Speaker 3: Mal Cuban, I think it was fool's gold. I mean,
Speaker 3: we went to the finals. You know, it's only been
Speaker 3: fifteen months since they took over, and we went right
Speaker 3: to the finals, and I think everything seemed easy, and
Speaker 3: all decisions that were made seemed to be perfect. And
Speaker 3: in that particular case, why do you need Mark for
Speaker 3: any more help? And you know, but It's never that
Speaker 3: easy over the course of time. And you know, once
Speaker 3: we once I was out of that picture, we really
Speaker 3: didn't have anybody that had any long term experience in
Speaker 3: making decisions in the NBA, and I think that kind
Speaker 3: of backfired.
Speaker 2: And I guess what I'm asking is, but if you
Speaker 2: had an agreement where you still own twenty seven percent
Speaker 2: of the franchise and you're going to be running basketball operations,
Speaker 2: how the hell was that something they were able to
Speaker 2: wiggle their way out of. How did that happen?
Speaker 3: Well, because it was a handshake agreement, and you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: they decided, you know, I tried to put it into
Speaker 3: the contract actually in the NBA said no, they said, basically,
Speaker 3: it's between you and the new ownership. And you know,
Speaker 3: they they went in their direction again. You know, mistakes happen.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think they do it the same
Speaker 3: way now. But it's only been fifteen months and I think,
Speaker 3: you know, they've learned from everything that's happened, and I
Speaker 3: think things will be better for Maps fans going forward.
Speaker 1: The most obvious question you have ever been asked, because
Speaker 1: we all know the answer. If Mark Cuban is still
Speaker 1: the owner for the Dallas Mavericks majority and otherwise, is
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic in La or is he still in Dallas?
Speaker 3: I think he's here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Could you have ever imagined yourself trading Luka Doncic? No,
Speaker 1: can you explain why the hell they came to that conclusion?
Speaker 3: I don't know, you.
Speaker 2: Still don't know.
Speaker 3: I've heard, I mean, you know, Nico is you know,
Speaker 3: I've heard what Nico said publicly privately, you know, and
Speaker 3: they align and so you know, Nico felt it was
Speaker 3: the best decision and Patrick do you mine agreed with them
Speaker 3: at the time, and they made that decision, and you
Speaker 3: know it just that's the way the NBA works.
Speaker 1: Could you educate my audience as to what words were
Speaker 1: said as to why Luka Doncic was being traded.
Speaker 3: I mean, Nico decided that, you know, defense wins championships,
Speaker 3: and they thought that he thought that Anthony Davis would
Speaker 3: be a better anchor for our defense. And look, you know,
Speaker 3: the truth is between Ad Derek Lively, and Derek Gafford,
Speaker 3: that's the best big three, big three in the NBA.
Speaker 3: But Luka Doncis is a you know, generational talent. So
Speaker 3: you know, while there's an argument to be made, and
Speaker 3: I understand where Nico's coming from. It's just not the
Speaker 3: same decision I would have made.
Speaker 2: So when they told you, where were you and did
Speaker 2: you collapse in front of their face? Did you go ballistic?
Speaker 2: What was your immediate reaction upon hearing the news that
Speaker 2: this generational talent six years younger than the talent that
Speaker 2: you was bringing in, although Anthony Davis is a big
Speaker 2: time player, What was your immediate reaction in the moment
Speaker 2: when you were first told the news.
Speaker 3: I was like, you're asked me, right, this isn't done?
Speaker 3: And he was like, no, it's done, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: you know, nothing more to talk about. I wouldn't have
Speaker 3: done this, and you know, thanks for giving me the call.
Speaker 2: Who did you say that to? Who cult you?
Speaker 3: Nico?
Speaker 2: Wow? Wow?
Speaker 1: One of the things that was reported Mark Cuban is
Speaker 1: that throughout his years, as much of a generational talent
Speaker 1: as we all know Luca to be, his dad spoke
Speaker 1: out upon in the immediate aftermath of the trade because
Speaker 1: of the cynicism that was thrown in Luca's direction, doing
Speaker 1: his own thing, marches to the beat of his own drum,
Speaker 1: you know, controlling his circle to some degree, strength and conditioning, etc.
Speaker 1: Being in shape, all of these different things. Was it
Speaker 1: fair criticism? Was it exaggerated?
Speaker 2: Was he being maligned unnecessarily in your eyes?
Speaker 3: I mean, look, everybody saw him. It wasn't like he
Speaker 3: was ripped and had a six pack. But what I
Speaker 3: think what the biggest mistake was in trying to understand
Speaker 3: Luca is he's He's from the Balkans, right, He's Slovenian.
Speaker 3: And you know, you look at Jokic, who's Serbian, and
Speaker 3: you look at Serbian players in general, they're just a
Speaker 3: different mindset, right. They look at the game different they
Speaker 3: look at life differently, they look at their they're emotionally.
Speaker 3: You know, the guys that I've gotten to know from
Speaker 3: that from that region of the world are different. And
Speaker 3: I think that was what was not considered as fully
Speaker 3: as it should have been. That you've got to understand
Speaker 3: what people are like, what their backgrounds are like, who
Speaker 3: they are personally, what their families are like, you know,
Speaker 3: how they interact with other people and from that part
Speaker 3: of the world. And my experience is Luca was just
Speaker 3: you know, other than the basketball talent, he was just
Speaker 3: like every other guy. And you know, and I think
Speaker 3: that was one of the reasons he loves to play
Speaker 3: with the Slovenian team. He relates so well to all
Speaker 3: the other players from that part of the world, and
Speaker 3: you know, over the summers, that's who he's hanging out with,
Speaker 3: that that's who he is. And so I don't think
Speaker 3: that we truly lead took the time to understand that,
Speaker 3: and I think that really led to this decision, and
Speaker 3: that that and that really underpinned this decision, that lack
Speaker 3: of attention to that that issue, and I think that's
Speaker 3: here we are.
Speaker 2: Mark educate us.
Speaker 1: When you say he was a bit different, not so
Speaker 1: much about him, but about those players from Europe compared
Speaker 1: to American players, and you say he's a bit different,
Speaker 1: folks needed to understand that kind of thing. What are
Speaker 1: the kind of things that you noticed about him and
Speaker 1: about players from overseas, from Europe.
Speaker 3: Different even overseas players. If you've never seen a game
Speaker 3: in Serbia, Okay, they're going, like said before, Joker said,
Speaker 3: you know, oh, guys are yelling at me. No, dude,
Speaker 3: have you ever seen a game in Serbia? And you
Speaker 3: watch him, that's where you see the videos of the
Speaker 3: entire stadium, bouncing up and down. And you know, look
Speaker 3: at Jokic's brothers. They're aggressive, right, they don't put up
Speaker 3: with anything, you know. Just you know when we had
Speaker 3: bobono On was a big teddy beer but he could
Speaker 3: be aggressive too on the court. And so just that
Speaker 3: mindset that you just when you're on the court, your
Speaker 3: intensity is at a different level, you know. And you
Speaker 3: see that with Jokish, you see that with Luca, you
Speaker 3: see that with other players, and that historically has been
Speaker 3: who they are. And you have to understand where people
Speaker 3: are from in the world. That culture, you know, the
Speaker 3: culture you grow up in, makes the difference to who
Speaker 3: you are as an athlete, as a professional in any sport,
Speaker 3: and as a business person for that matter.
Speaker 2: Is that good for the NBA in this day and age.
Speaker 2: Is it what's needing?
Speaker 3: Yes? Yes, it's great, right because you know, the beauty
Speaker 3: of the NBA is that we accept all cultures from
Speaker 3: around the world because you know, they're all different, and
Speaker 3: that's what makes us unique in that we're very, very
Speaker 3: accepting no matter where you are, where you are from.
Speaker 3: And I think it's amazing, you know, and you know
Speaker 3: when you see his Ukah like when I went to
Speaker 3: La with my son when we played there against it
Speaker 3: for the first time, and I told him I was
Speaker 3: gonna boom when he was on the free throw line.
Speaker 3: So I did, and I was smiling and laughing, and
Speaker 3: he was. You know, he got really intense, because he's
Speaker 3: always really intense on the court. Always. You see his
Speaker 3: response to the referees, you see his responses to anybody.
Speaker 3: He is intense. And while you know, Joker may not
Speaker 3: be as purely emotional, and I don't get to see
Speaker 3: as many of his games, the guy is intense, you know,
Speaker 3: But when the game is over and he goes back home,
Speaker 3: he's more interested in harness racing, which by the way,
Speaker 3: I grew up watching my entire life, so I don't
Speaker 3: blame him. But you know, they go back and they
Speaker 3: live their lives. It's just different, and you've got to
Speaker 3: accept those differences in players from that part of the world,
Speaker 3: and I think that was part of our mistake.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, the way you describe Lucan players from that
Speaker 1: part of the world. It sounds a lot like Mark Cuban,
Speaker 1: and I don't recall you being born in Balkans. I
Speaker 1: mean your intensity level for it we'll go ahead.
Speaker 3: Let me just tell you one grandparents from Lithuania, Okay,
Speaker 3: multiple from Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: You know so I got that into my blood, stephen A.
Speaker 2: I got you. I got you absolutely.
Speaker 1: Before I get into my questions that are non sports related,
Speaker 1: I wanted to read you something.
Speaker 2: Did you see this?
Speaker 1: Rasmussein poll conducted by Pablo Torre finds out it's of
Speaker 1: one twenty one likely voters who were asked who would
Speaker 1: be the best Democratic candidate for vice president for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight?
Speaker 2: Would you check out this? Please? What's your reaction to this?
Speaker 2: Right here? Mark Cuban is leading to raise Dame first.
Speaker 2: There we go. That's right. That's what they did. That
Speaker 2: wasn't enough. That was them.
Speaker 3: I did second fiddle to nobody, damn right. So but
Speaker 3: you know, if I ever do decide to run, which
Speaker 3: won't happen, stephen A, you can be my VP.
Speaker 1: No, if you ain't playing second for what would make
Speaker 1: you think I want to play second fit?
Speaker 3: I'm not doing that because that's who you are, bro,
Speaker 3: That's who you are.
Speaker 2: I'm second fiddle, that's what you're telling me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, go never mind.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: At least chief established Secretary of State or something, not
Speaker 1: the vice president.
Speaker 2: Not the vice president. But let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: You know, you've been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: but revealed on the All In podcast that he reached
Speaker 1: out to you in twenty twenty four and offered you
Speaker 1: a position in his administration. First of all, in what
Speaker 1: capacity was that and did you ever consider it?
Speaker 3: No, he didn't offer me in a position ever, so
Speaker 3: that that never happened. But back in his first administration,
Speaker 3: I went and talked to him and talked to others
Speaker 3: about helping with health care. And I actually talked to
Speaker 3: people in the administration now bringing up just basic things
Speaker 3: about health care and pharmacy pricing because of our success
Speaker 3: with costplus Drugs dot Com and so look, I'm all
Speaker 3: about Team USA. Whatever I can do to help this country,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do it. You know. It's you know,
Speaker 3: it's like sports. I played rugby forever. You beat the
Speaker 3: hell out of each other during the game. After the game,
Speaker 3: you have a beer. This is, you know, my mind
Speaker 3: the same way. You know, if I can help cut
Speaker 3: the cost of health care in the United States of America,
Speaker 3: doesn't matter who the president is, whether I like him
Speaker 3: or dislike him, I'm going to do what I can.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about what he's been doing so far,
Speaker 1: not just in the first seventy two seventy three days,
Speaker 1: but specifically with this whole tariff war he's created.
Speaker 2: What are your thought?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's the problem. I think he and
Speaker 3: Elon aren't aligned in their thinking. I think Elon's first
Speaker 3: goal is to reduce the deficit, and one path to
Speaker 3: reduce the deficit is by the economy declining and contracting.
Speaker 3: The idea is that if the economy contracts, then you
Speaker 3: have to reduce interest rates in order to you know,
Speaker 3: get it fired back up again. And by reducing interest rates,
Speaker 3: since that's one of the big components of the national debt,
Speaker 3: then you push down the national debt. The problem is
Speaker 3: you can't reduce interest rates and why you're increasing tariffs
Speaker 3: because tariffs, particularly to the extent that they've been implemented
Speaker 3: here this week, are very, very inflationary. So you create
Speaker 3: this catch twenty two. And then on top of that,
Speaker 3: with all the DOGE cuts, which I think are going
Speaker 3: to have a disproportionate impact on small towns and cities
Speaker 3: in the United States of America, then all these things
Speaker 3: happening at once, and that's really bad for the economy.
Speaker 2: That doesn't sound like America.
Speaker 1: First to me, that doesn't sound like it makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense what they're doing right now. And as
Speaker 1: somebody write this to me, they said, his formula is screwed.
Speaker 1: First it was an election too. Talking about the terriffs.
Speaker 1: First it was an election tool. Then it was a
Speaker 1: negotiating tool. Now it's here to stay. He's all over
Speaker 1: the place. This is what people are saying about him
Speaker 1: as it pertains the tariffs.
Speaker 2: Do you find yourself thinking in that regard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what I think is they're very dogmatic. You know.
Speaker 3: Elon is very dogmatic. Cut cut, cut, cut cut, and
Speaker 3: Trump is very dogmatic. Tariffs, you know, are a beautiful word,
Speaker 3: and we're going to have tariffs. They don't go together
Speaker 3: at all. Something's got to give, and right now it's
Speaker 3: the stock market.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking at it from this standpoint.
Speaker 1: The thing that really struck me, Mark is that the Republicans,
Speaker 1: this is a party that religiously preaches about the importance
Speaker 1: of lowering taxes. How are you going to sit up
Speaker 1: there and raise and create a tariff war? And then
Speaker 1: the same breath, lower taxes. It seems to be antithetical
Speaker 1: to anything that they've been preaching about for decades. I
Speaker 1: don't find their message to be consistent at all in
Speaker 1: that regard to that job.
Speaker 3: No. I mean, look, the parties are not as important
Speaker 3: as they used to be, and the Republican Party is
Speaker 3: the Trump family business now. And you know, maybe that's
Speaker 3: good in some respect, but that it also means that
Speaker 3: everybody's just going to go along. Everybody in that party
Speaker 3: is going to go along with whatever Donald Trump says.
Speaker 3: And if he says tariffs are good, everybody's out there
Speaker 3: saying tariffs are good. Howard Lucknet. Donald Trump has been
Speaker 3: wanting tariffs for thirty years. He's the smartest guy I know.
Speaker 3: Let's you know, tariffs are going to be amazing until
Speaker 3: they are.
Speaker 1: Not only that, it's increasing taxes on small businesses as well,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, I mean this is exact. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is the bread and butter of the
Speaker 1: American economy, and it's increasing taxes on small businesses and
Speaker 1: on regular average every day American.
Speaker 3: Protect three million. There are thirty three million companies in
Speaker 3: this country. There are only twenty one thousand that have
Speaker 3: five hundred or more employees, the other thirty two point
Speaker 3: whatever million. They don't have the money to absorb tariffs.
Speaker 3: They can't just raise prices. They you know, they are
Speaker 3: going to get hurt. And so that's a real problem
Speaker 3: that I don't think they've thunk through.
Speaker 2: Why is it?
Speaker 1: Tell us and remind us why you were so supportive
Speaker 1: of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party considering how chaotic
Speaker 1: things look.
Speaker 2: And we ultimately learned that side of.
Speaker 3: The aisle was because she wasn't Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Simple as plain, just that simple.
Speaker 1: If it were anybody else other than Donald Trump. Let's say,
Speaker 1: for example, it was NICKI Haley. Let's say, for example,
Speaker 1: what was Ron DeSantis, Chris CHRISTI. Even if a vec
Speaker 1: Ramaswami or somebody, are you saying that you may have
Speaker 1: thought differently.
Speaker 3: I voted for Nicky Haley in the Texas primary.
Speaker 1: I got you, so you would have voted for her
Speaker 1: for presidency if she had wonted Republican.
Speaker 3: There was a lot more to learn, right, You can't
Speaker 3: just you know, jump based up of what was happening
Speaker 3: to the point of the primaries. I didn't agree with
Speaker 3: everything she said, but I certainly would have considered it.
Speaker 3: And look, I like Calma, I don't want to throw
Speaker 3: her under the bus. She's smarter than people give her
Speaker 3: credit for. But I think she was really held back
Speaker 3: by her team. They would not let her do just
Speaker 3: basic things that would have made a lot of difference.
Speaker 2: MARKA, You are you a reachtered Republican?
Speaker 3: No, I'm independent?
Speaker 1: Okay, so am I I just want to make sure
Speaker 1: I cover I checked that, you know. I asked that
Speaker 1: question because as I look at I've been taking a
Speaker 1: lot of heat because I've been pointing the finger at
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. I'm like, I ain't gotta apologize for
Speaker 1: a damn thing. I voted for them. What the hell
Speaker 1: am I doing?
Speaker 2: Vote?
Speaker 1: I voted for him, you know, And now I was
Speaker 1: rooting for them, but I was so disgusted because I
Speaker 1: felt that they got caught up in identity politics, cancer
Speaker 1: coach and all of that stuff and wasn't talking about everything.
Speaker 2: Talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, what did Donald Trump do that was
Speaker 3: really smart? And he just drove home right. He told
Speaker 3: every white guy, not just white guys, you know, guys
Speaker 3: who worked in big companies that DEI was the reason
Speaker 3: why you weren't getting the job or why you weren't
Speaker 3: getting promoted. And he told people of color that you know,
Speaker 3: or not just people together, people who were in lower
Speaker 3: paying jobs, the reason why you weren't getting paid more
Speaker 3: is because immigrants were coming here illegally and taking your jobs.
Speaker 3: And he wasn't wrong to a certain extent. You know,
Speaker 3: the Democrats were so you know about identity politics, and
Speaker 3: you know, you know, we have to help all these
Speaker 3: underprivileged people. Well, we all want to help people who
Speaker 3: are disadvantaged, whether they're trans, whether they're black, whether they're white,
Speaker 3: whether they're poor, you know, whoever. We want to help
Speaker 3: those people, but you don't have to make it that
Speaker 3: you do what you do rather than just talk about it. Right,
Speaker 3: and by just pushing all these agendas to push DI
Speaker 3: and I'm a fan of DEI, I think it really
Speaker 3: turned off a lot of people who felt like they
Speaker 3: were being diminished. And then there were, you know, particularly
Speaker 3: in universities, the way they implemented DEI and spend tens
Speaker 3: of millions of dollars instead of just helping people that
Speaker 3: need help. Okay, Stephen, you need help, Let me find
Speaker 3: a way to help you. That's what we're going to do.
Speaker 3: It was let's put together these programs, let's spend all
Speaker 3: this money. Let's tell people that they are racist when
Speaker 3: they're not racist. There are plenty of racists. We don't
Speaker 3: need to call people who aren't racist racist. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, doing things like that, you know, the whole
Speaker 3: sports transports issue. You know, it's like the old Willie
Speaker 3: Horton thing. You know, my attitude is, if there's a
Speaker 3: trans athlete, no matter what side, you let the opponent,
Speaker 3: whether it's an individual sport or a team sport, you
Speaker 3: let them decide if they wanted to compete against them
Speaker 3: or not, if they feel they can win, if they
Speaker 3: feel it's not fair, it's up to them. But to
Speaker 3: make it just a national issue so that if you
Speaker 3: weren't supporting the fewer than ten trans athletes in the
Speaker 3: NC DOUBLEA, then you know you weren't a good person.
Speaker 3: I just people aren't ready for that yet, and you've
Speaker 3: got to meet people where they are. We've gotten we've
Speaker 3: taken this country so far in race relationships, rations and
Speaker 3: attitudes towards LGTBQ. You know, it takes time. You can't
Speaker 3: just force it down people's throat. And instead of trying
Speaker 3: to get it where the people who are being disadvantaged
Speaker 3: and being discriminated against are helped, they wanted to make
Speaker 3: it a campaign issue focused on helping the people, not
Speaker 3: using them to campaign.
Speaker 2: How does it make any sense to you?
Speaker 1: Let's say, for example, this compartmentalize and take the trans
Speaker 1: athlete issue. We're talking about folks that make up less
Speaker 1: than one percent of the population, and they made it
Speaker 1: a big deal during their campaign.
Speaker 2: What kind of thinking do you.
Speaker 1: Connect that to? For the Democratic Party to take that
Speaker 1: kind of approach where there were vast swaths of the
Speaker 1: American electorate that they were ignoring in favor of a
Speaker 1: considerably smaller swathp how do you explain it?
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I get wanting to stand up
Speaker 3: for people who are being discriminated again, absolutely, I get
Speaker 3: wanting to stand up for people who are in pain,
Speaker 3: who are who can't get jobs because of how they
Speaker 3: look or how they sound, or where they're from or
Speaker 3: what's happened to them. You know, the choices they've made
Speaker 3: and how they're identified. Help them, but you've got to
Speaker 3: look at the goal. How do you help them? Is
Speaker 3: the goal? Not how do you make a point to,
Speaker 3: you know, the rest of America that they're discriminatory and
Speaker 3: we're not. That there's no value in trying to prove
Speaker 3: someone else discriminates and you don't, right. The value comes
Speaker 3: in focusing that energy on actually helping the people, not
Speaker 3: trying to use them to sell something.
Speaker 1: Last question on this subject, I want to see if
Speaker 1: you agree or disagree with me on this. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the Democratic Party and I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of spectacular local talent, and I like Jos Shapiro to
Speaker 1: governor of Pennsylvania. I really really like Wes Moore. I
Speaker 1: look at them and I say, yes, I like them.
Speaker 1: The way they're looking at politics, they might as well
Speaker 1: stay in their own state. I don't see a national
Speaker 1: voice for the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: So I'm of the mindset.
Speaker 1: That as bad as this situation seems to be with
Speaker 1: tariffs and how it may potentially wreck our economy, if
Speaker 1: you're listening to a lot of centrist in those on
Speaker 1: the left, my other attitude is the best way to
Speaker 1: combat all of that is for the Dems to win
Speaker 1: the mid term elections, and the best way for them
Speaker 1: to do that is by letting Donald Trump do what
Speaker 1: he wants to do so he can mess up and
Speaker 1: that way you can slide up in there and recover
Speaker 1: from the disastrous, disastrous stuff that happened this past election.
Speaker 2: To that, you say, what, So.
Speaker 3: I think the Democrats locally have to do things right.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get Bernie, You're gonna get AOC going out
Speaker 3: and going on their tour and get people amped up.
Speaker 3: And that's fine, right, But the reality is, let's just
Speaker 3: look at DOGE. Right. The cuts that Doge are is
Speaker 3: making to jobs, firing all those people, closing offices, canceling
Speaker 3: contracts to universities through the NIH, through you know, other organization,
Speaker 3: other agencies. Right, that has a disproportional impact on small
Speaker 3: town America. So I read something that you know in
Speaker 3: Iowa City, Iowa that just through the NIH there were
Speaker 3: seventy nine million dollars in grants that look like they'll
Speaker 3: be canceled. That's very impactful in that district. And apparently
Speaker 3: the woman who won Republican who won, only won by
Speaker 3: eight hundred votes. You've got to go where you can
Speaker 3: help those people who are being disadvantaged by all these
Speaker 3: DOGE cuts. You go to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where there's
Speaker 3: a Treasury office that has two thousand people. I don't
Speaker 3: know how many people are I want to get fired,
Speaker 3: but first hundred twenty five already have. When you fire
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty five people in a pound that
Speaker 3: only has twenty nine thousand total, probably fifteen thousand working,
Speaker 3: and there's potential for another eighteen hundred and seventy five
Speaker 3: to be cutting in offices to be closed. The Democrats
Speaker 3: need to be going there and talking to the mayors,
Speaker 3: talking to the tax assessory, talking to the people in
Speaker 3: the county and saying, look, this is all going to
Speaker 3: fall on you. Everything's going to roll downhill and hit
Speaker 3: your budget and you're going to have to cut all
Speaker 3: these services. Let us work with you to come up
Speaker 3: with solutions so that you see the Democrats as the
Speaker 3: solution rather than the Republicans that are creating this problem.
Speaker 3: But if you just say Democrats bad, Trump bad, you know,
Speaker 3: every time you bring up Donald Trump in a small town,
Speaker 3: it's a trigger word one way or the other. There's
Speaker 3: just no point to talk about him. What you got
Speaker 3: to do is go in there and help the people
Speaker 3: that need help. And that's the theme you'll hear me
Speaker 3: talking about all the time, no matter what the topic.
Speaker 3: When these decisions like tariffs and those are made, there
Speaker 3: are people who are being disadvantaged. There are people who
Speaker 3: are losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their companies, their towns
Speaker 3: are not going to be able to offer the same services.
Speaker 3: The COVID money that is using for there's now being
Speaker 3: used for a mental health clinic or an opioid clinic.
Speaker 3: Those are going to get cut. Who is going to
Speaker 3: come in there and help them resolve those issues that
Speaker 3: those cuts have created. That's what the Democrats need to do.
Speaker 3: They need to go in there and talk to those people,
Speaker 3: hold the town halls, listen to them, and rather than
Speaker 3: always having a Democrat standing behind e lectern lecturing, let
Speaker 3: those people who are facing these challenges talk for them.
Speaker 3: Because if you hear somebody from Parkersburg, West Virginia, if
Speaker 3: you hear a cattle farmer from Nebraska, if you hear
Speaker 3: somebody at the University of Iowa who's studying the cure
Speaker 3: for cancer, whatever it may be. If you hear somebody
Speaker 3: in West Virginia that used to work for the agency
Speaker 3: that make sure that there were safety in the coal mines,
Speaker 3: and you talk to the coal miners who now are
Speaker 3: scared to go and do their job. Put aside whether
Speaker 3: the environment, they're just terrified. You know that there's not
Speaker 3: going to be stafety standards. Talk to those people and
Speaker 3: let them do the talking for you. That is how
Speaker 3: you going to get momentum. If you're the Democrats.
Speaker 1: Mark you launched cost plus Drugs in January twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two to cut the middleman out of getting prescription drugs
Speaker 1: into the hands of consumers, and that's helped millions.
Speaker 2: How will the new terriffs affect that business?
Speaker 3: Right now, they're not. But what we'll do is if
Speaker 3: there's a ten percent, twenty percent terror, we'll add that
Speaker 3: on to the cost. So right now, the way cost
Speaker 3: plus Drugs works, you go to costplus drugs dot com.
Speaker 3: You put in the name of the medication if we
Speaker 3: carry it, and we carry about twenty five hundred SKUs,
Speaker 3: it'll come up and we'll show you our actual costs
Speaker 3: and then we'll show you our markup, which is only
Speaker 3: fifteen percent, and because we only market up fifteen percent,
Speaker 3: we're almost always cheaper. If there's a tariff, we'll show
Speaker 3: you what the actual tariff is. We'll be completely transparent,
Speaker 3: and we'll show you what it is and hopefully, since
Speaker 3: it's you know, some percentage of a lower amount will
Speaker 3: actually end up being even cheaper than the alternatives.
Speaker 2: Are you going to run for president? Do you believe?
Speaker 2: You don't think so?
Speaker 1: Do you believe that you could beat any Democratic candidate
Speaker 1: out there?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So why would it you run when you have the heart,
Speaker 1: the intelligence to make a difference, and obviously deep pockets.
Speaker 3: Because I think I can really change healthcare and fix healthcare,
Speaker 3: and I'd rather be on that mission. And when I'm
Speaker 3: ninety five years old and I'm on my deathbed and
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about life, I'd rather think about those minutes
Speaker 3: I spent with my kids and the time I was
Speaker 3: able to spend with them at this age, rather than
Speaker 3: running around on a campaign trailer even being in the
Speaker 3: White House.
Speaker 1: What's your chances of fixing healthcare? If this man is
Speaker 1: still in office?
Speaker 3: I think, you know, he actually helps to a certain Okay,
Speaker 3: how because I think the people he's putting in there
Speaker 3: they need help, right they know what they don't know. Fortunately,
Speaker 3: and so the people that I've talked to have said, look,
Speaker 3: the doors wide open to come in and help us
Speaker 3: figure these things out to show it, you know, to
Speaker 3: demonstrate to us why the pharmacy benefit managers are problems
Speaker 3: and why they're increasing the cost of medications while the insurance,
Speaker 3: the biggest insurance companies are increasing the cost of health care.
Speaker 3: We're ready to listen to people that he's appointed have said,
Speaker 3: or through their intermediaries have said, we're ready to listen.
Speaker 3: We think you can help. I'm sending them data, so
Speaker 3: I think there's a path there.
Speaker 2: And who are these people that he appointed that you're
Speaker 2: alluded to? RFK Junior? Who him? Anybody else?
Speaker 3: I hadn't talked to those guys, but I talked to
Speaker 3: people who work for them.
Speaker 2: I got you.
Speaker 1: Let me transition back to sports before I let you
Speaker 1: get on out of here, because recently you went on
Speaker 1: you were on the All the Smoke podcasts with my boys,
Speaker 1: you know, Matt Bonds and Stephen Jackson. You have some
Speaker 1: great things to say about star player Kyrie Irvin and
Speaker 1: what he means to you and what he means to
Speaker 1: the gay He and I have had our differences in
Speaker 1: the past, but I know he's a good brother and
Speaker 1: I've obviously even when we were butting heads, I religiously said,
Speaker 1: that's just he and I button heads over something. I
Speaker 1: respect the hell out of that guy, and I know
Speaker 1: what a spectacular play he is.
Speaker 2: He's a good dude. Your thoughts about Kyrie Irving love
Speaker 2: him to death.
Speaker 3: Man, he has just got a heart of gold and
Speaker 3: some you know, you could say that his biggest problem
Speaker 3: is he's you know, his heart is too big. But
Speaker 3: I love him, I care for him. I just want
Speaker 3: nothing but the best for him and his family. And oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, I don't have mind right now, but
Speaker 3: those Kyrie's I just got some of the newest ones.
Speaker 3: They're fireboys. Okay, so go out and try those two.
Speaker 2: How's he doing? How's he doing mentally and otherwise? Sense
Speaker 2: of surgery?
Speaker 3: I mean, he sees it as just another challenge that
Speaker 3: he's got to fight through. You know, you if you
Speaker 3: saw the you know you're showing the replay here, if
Speaker 3: you saw him at the three free throw line when
Speaker 3: he you know, miuths the words thank you God. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's how Kyrie approaches life, where he's like, this is
Speaker 3: what I've been given. I've been giving these these amazing talents,
Speaker 3: but I'm also going to be giving challenges and this
Speaker 3: is one more. And Kyrie has just got that focus
Speaker 3: and that intensity. He's in a lot of respects. He's
Speaker 3: like Dirk in that respect where when Dirk got heard
Speaker 3: or something happened, Dirk found a way to fight through,
Speaker 3: and Kyrie's the same way.
Speaker 1: You're back at a startup taking on TikTok is called Skylight.
Speaker 3: Talk about that, Yeah, I mean there's a couple actually
Speaker 3: that I'm working with that you know, who knows what
Speaker 3: happens with TikTok. But I'm big on a platform called
Speaker 3: oh my God, not I want to call him my
Speaker 3: space Blue Sky. So I'm really big on a platform
Speaker 3: called Blue Sky. And Blue Sky is a moderated social
Speaker 3: media platform and working with Skylight that allows them to
Speaker 3: add TikTok like videos and the beautiful part of it.
Speaker 3: It's distributed so there's no one person that can control it.
Speaker 3: It's moderated, so you can have normal comps. There's not
Speaker 3: people coming out with hate and anti Semitic things. You know,
Speaker 3: those people get booted off. So I can have real
Speaker 3: social media like conversations on Blue Sky. And so you
Speaker 3: can follow me there at mcuban and you can see
Speaker 3: all these things and.
Speaker 1: What's this about some change maker AI contest you've got
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 3: Oh that's with the Forward party and so AI like you.
Speaker 3: AI is just the coolest shit I've ever seen in technology.
Speaker 3: It is just unreal. Like I've been through a lot
Speaker 3: of technological revolutions going way back, but there's nothing like
Speaker 3: artificial intelligence and you know, doing things like creating videos
Speaker 3: through text prompts. You could say, you know, show create
Speaker 3: a video with Mark and Steven a talking about sports
Speaker 3: in front of you know this background, and just hit
Speaker 3: enter and it'll in two minutes it'll crank something out
Speaker 3: that you can start from. So, you know, prompt text
Speaker 3: to video, you know, talking to chat ept you know,
Speaker 3: or Anthropic or all the different editors Gemini, here's one
Speaker 3: for you, Steven. Have you heard of notebook LM?
Speaker 2: I have?
Speaker 3: Have you tried that?
Speaker 1: I have not.
Speaker 2: I have not tried it, but I just heard about
Speaker 2: it the other day. I didn't know anything about it
Speaker 2: till the other day.
Speaker 3: So this stuff is crazy, right, So take a transcript
Speaker 3: of this show, our interview and go to Google Notebook
Speaker 3: LM Studio and put it in there and create a
Speaker 3: podcast out of it. There'll be two people a man
Speaker 3: and a woman that will just start talking about It'll
Speaker 3: be like, so stephen A had something interesting to stay
Speaker 3: about politics, what do you It's just insane. And why
Speaker 3: that's important is kids today gen Z and younger don't
Speaker 3: like to read. When we grew up, reading was it
Speaker 3: was fundamental, right, it was critically important to learning and
Speaker 3: being curious. Now people want to listen to podcasts. They
Speaker 3: want to you know, watch and listen on YouTube. Being
Speaker 3: able to take things that are text and books and
Speaker 3: written and turning them into a podcast makes it easier
Speaker 3: to connect to your gen Z employees, gen Z students,
Speaker 3: whatever it may be. And I think just those types
Speaker 3: of tools from AI, they're going to change the world.
Speaker 1: Don't you worry at all about the negative impact that
Speaker 1: can have on a job market. These computers, this new technology,
Speaker 1: it's going to cost a lot of American citizens, a
Speaker 1: lot of people throughout the world jobs. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: human beings. I mean that, isn't that the truth?
Speaker 3: Yes and no, there's going to be disruption during the
Speaker 3: transition times. I think overall it'll create a lot more
Speaker 3: jobs because it's a tool that can allow people to
Speaker 3: be more creative, to be smarter, you know, it's like
Speaker 3: having your own mentor available to you all the time.
Speaker 3: You know, if you don't have an advanced education, it
Speaker 3: can act as a professor that can answer your questions.
Speaker 3: So I think it'll make people more capable, competent, and
Speaker 3: more employable. But in the intermis, it's just like the
Speaker 3: old days, right, you went from records to CDs and
Speaker 3: cassettes two DVDs to digital and they're gone and people
Speaker 3: lost their jobs and so it's unfortunate and you have
Speaker 3: to try to come up with programs that help them.
Speaker 3: But the reality is it's it's not going to stop.
Speaker 3: There's nothing you can do to stop it. Globally, and
Speaker 3: from a business perspective, there's going to be two types
Speaker 3: of companies, those who are great at AI and everybody else.
Speaker 3: And the better part about it, Stephen, is that there's
Speaker 3: going to be twelve year old kids fourteen year old
Speaker 3: kids that use AI to create billion dollar companies because
Speaker 3: they put in the time to understand where the opportunities
Speaker 3: are and the opportunities that AI creates and they go
Speaker 3: to work with them. If I was sixteen and I
Speaker 3: always looking to start a company, I would be like
Speaker 3: the smartest dude on AI in my neighborhood and go
Speaker 3: to the small medium sized businesses and show them how
Speaker 3: to use it. Or I would start my own business
Speaker 3: build around AI because it's going to be unstoppable.
Speaker 2: Last question for you, back to basketball.
Speaker 1: If I said your twenty seven percent stake in the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks is on the line. With the right answer
Speaker 1: to this question, who's meeting in the NBA Finals and
Speaker 1: who's gonna win it all?
Speaker 3: What you're telling me the Dallas Mavericks are going to
Speaker 3: shock the world.
Speaker 2: What you stop that nonsense? But come on, man, I
Speaker 2: just asked you.
Speaker 3: M f al to the core. You forget I was
Speaker 3: the season ticket owner in the nineties when if we
Speaker 3: won eleven games, that was a good season, and so
Speaker 3: I am hardcore MAVs. You can never get me off
Speaker 3: of that ever.
Speaker 2: Love you, man, It's good to see man. Thank you
Speaker 2: for being on the show. Buddy. I talked to you soon, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Stephen, Thank you one and only Mark Cuban right
Speaker 1: here on the Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith Show. That man special, That man special. I'll give
Speaker 2: that to him. The Mavericks, you ain't make the play,
Speaker 2: they might not. We'll talk about that later,