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Cuban Guilty Of Being An Enterprising American

Hooped Up | November 19, 2008

It was only a few years ago through conversation that I even heard about Mavericks owner Mark Cuban by a die hard NBA fan and being an MBA with an obvious interest in the business world, it was hard to believe that this was the first time this flamboyant young owner appeared on my business radar.

 Lot has changed since but, the SECs insatiable hunger for going after rich and successful people has not. The SEC like the rest of the Bush House, works with a definitive goal in mind. Like a hard working mad scientist, they know the answer; just define the question. Show their “findings” to the world, pat each other in the back and move over to the next answer. This is called Forensic Accounting. In my opinion this is nothing more than the modern day version of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” but with accounting as the back drop. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer and in this case, the jail house!

Wait till all of us find out that Mark Cuban was a key contributor in Obama’s campaign. Then all the proverbial shit will hit the roof. “We told you so” and “Sean –my- republican- finger- in- your- face-Hannity” will have a nice evening for a change in the “false news network” program.  Like the good Samaritans in the Bush House who acquitted “Sarah-I-won’t-go-away-Palin” right before the last leg of the election for Troopergate, similar comrades in SEC charged Cuban of insider trading. Some people may draw loose comparisons of Cuban with Martha Stewart but come-on, you can’t compare Mark Cuban with Martha Stewart. For starters, she bit the dirt for an amount equivalent to Lindsay Lohan’s lingerie bill and for whatever it’s worth, my mother told me to be leery of a woman who can make a flower out of a napkin – a good advice which holds true even to this date and I talk with personal experience.

 Cuban’s only real crime is being a successful entrepreneur. He made his first million by selling his computer consulting business (MicroSolutions) to CompuServe way before the dot com craze. He sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in exchange of Yahoo stocks (which were worth Billions – Dig that Carl Icahn), launched “HDnet”, owns Landmark theaters chain, a stake in Lions Gate International, chairman and co-owner of Magnolia pictures, producer of hits like “Good Night, and Good Luck” and some 36 other movies/TV-series. Not bad for a college drop out.

 While at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the Mavericks, in late June 2004 Cuban received an email from Mamma.com’s CEO, asking that he call as soon as possible (SEC claims). During an almost nine-minute call, Cuban promised to keep the information secret before learning the company planned a private investment in public equity offering, known as a PIPE. Cuban became very upset and angry during the conversation, and said, among other things, that he did not like PIPEs because they dilute the existing shareholders,” driving down the value of their stock, the SEC wrote in its complaint. At the end of the call, Cuban told the CEO, “Well, now I’m screwed. I can’t sell,” the SEC said. He did what any law abiding, patriotic citizen would do. Look at the precedence set by our leaders of the nation. Bush and Cheney.  So, he sells all his shares. By the way, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the SEC outlawed insider trading rating it to be a worse crime than incest, treason, murder, rape. If you know anything about the market, trillions and trillions of dollars exchange hands of people who have better information than others. Come to think of it, that’s what makes the markets efficient.

 Since change is the mantra of the year, I say to SEC: look at the real Kajunas like AIG, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Cheney’s Halliburton and Bush’s entire 8 years. When the lines are so blurred and the fog is so thick, I am sure this momentary lapse in judgment to greed can be over looked when you have BUSH HOUSE as the benchmark. While SEC is busy doing a “real investigation”, Cuban should be given a strict community service sentence. Instead of sending him to cut lawns or fold laundry in the prison, invite him to the white (which should be renamed now) house to oversee the business operations of government initiatives which are running in deficit.  While we are at it, let’s legalize insider trading too. But for that, I will make my case some other time. 

by VDUB

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Stackhouse Wants Out Of Dallas

Hooped Up | November 18, 2008

As Babylon continues to crumble for the Mavericks, another brick looks like it’s about to hit the ground with news that veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse wants out of Dallas like “Snake” Plissken wants out of New York…or Marbury.

“Jerry Stackhouse remains loyal to the Mavericks. But his belief in himself and his competitive nature have led him to a possible crossroads as he and his agent are exploring options for a possible departure from the Mavericks, including a buyout and trade scenarios that might make sense. Stackhouse said after practice today that he’s not bitter, nor is he upset that the direction of the Mavericks left him on the inactive list for Sunday’s game at New York.”

Dallas Morning News

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Mamma Mia! Cuban Charged With Insider Trading

Hooped Up | November 17, 2008

The Mavericks fall from the NBA elite is the least of Dallas owner Mark Cubans worries right now, as today he was charged with insider trading by the SEC. Cuban has been a prolific risk taker as an NBA owner and dot-com millionaire but, just how far does his thirst for risk stretch?

According to the press relase below, things just got real deep in Dallas!

“Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

Cuban disputed the allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and said he would contest them.

The SEC filed a civil lawsuit against Cuban in federal court in Dallas. The agency alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private.

Cuban owned 6.3 percent of Mamma.com’s stock at that time and was the largest known shareholder in the search engine company, according to the SEC. The agency said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price, and a few hours after receiving the information, he told his broker to sell all 600,000 shares before the public announcement of the offering.

By selling when he did, Cuban avoided losses exceeding $750,000, the SEC said in its lawsuit. Montreal-based Mamma.com changed its name to Copernic Inc. in June 2007.”

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Could Marbury End Up A Maverick?

Hooped Up |

It’s 10 games into the new season and the Knicks still haven’t budged on their Marbury stance yet. However, Mavs owner Mark Cuban is a fan of the Knicks point guard and given the right opportunity has said he would be interested in acquired him as a back up to Jason Kidd. 

“Mark Cuban held court before the game, and said he understood the Knicks’ decision with Stephon Marbury regarding changing the culture. Cuban also suggested there’d be a number of teams bidding for Marbury’s services when he becomes a free agent. Cuban was a guest on Marbury’s “Stars on Stars” TV show two years ago. Cuban likes him, thinks he’s a smart guy, has always lauded his business acumen from the Starbury sneaker campaign. The struggling Mavs (3-7) could use a deeper bench and a backup for Jason Kidd.”

NY Post

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Nowitzki Calls Out Mavs

Hooped Up | November 11, 2008

The 2-4 Mavericks are flat and Dirk Nowitzki finally told his team what he thinks about their play.

“Dirk Nowitzki criticized the team for a lack of effort. Monday, he went one step further. “Really, it’s everybody,” Nowitzki said. “It’s me included. I don’t know what it is, but I think we played a lot harder in the second half [against the Clippers]. That’s how we’ve got to play all the time. I don’t think we’re good enough right now to coast through games or coast through a first quarter and just pick it up whenever we want.” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle has commented on the Mavericks’ lack of energy since the regular season began. It was obvious that he welcomed Nowitzki’s remarks.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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Raw Deal For Artest

Hooped Up | November 3, 2008


Ron-Ron can’t catch a break!  A few days ago in the game between the Rockets and Mavericks. Artest picked up a suspect technical foul when he ran to the aid of teammate Yao Ming as a peacemaker after a hard Josh Howard foul . Immediately after the game, the Rockets appealed the call but according to the Houston Chronicle the NBA has decided to upheld the technical foul ruling.

I call shenanigans on this one! Josh Howard hit Yao Ming like he asked him to sing the Star Spangled Banner and the ref was more concerned about Ron-Ron. 

Shenanigans!

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2010 NBA All-Star Game In Texas

Hooped Up | October 31, 2008

The biggest NBA all-star game ever, will take place in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium scheduled for completion in 2010. Yee-Haw!!!

“Stern announced the plans yesterday in a ceremony outside the American Airlines Center near downtown Dallas, where the Mavericks play. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also attended the ceremony.

If all goes according to plan, the event will set the record for the largest crowd ever to watch an NBA game, shattering the mark of 44,735 set at the 1989 All-Star Game, held at another Texas-size venue, the Houston Astrodome.”

Washington Post

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Hooped Up: Dallas Mavericks 08-09 Season Preview

Hooped Up | October 30, 2008

A team-by-team preview of all 30 NBA teams heading into the 2008 - 2009 season, Hooped Up style.  

Dallas Mavericks
Once a top team in the league and now just trying to hang on for dear life in the west.  Adding Jason Kidd the the mix for a playoff run was a little desperate and didn’t pan out at all.  Josh Howard done lost his mind this summer and Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier have seen better days. They’ve possibly tinkered themselves out of a playoff spot in the west and this group is aging faster than Mark Cuban cares to acknowledge.  

In his mind this crew is right in the hunt, could he be right?

Projected Starters: PG - Jason Kidd / SG - Jerry Stackhouse / SF - Josh Howard / PF - Dirk Nowitzki / C - Erick Dampier

Additions: Shan Foster, DeSagana Diop, Gerald Green, James Singleton, Keith McLeod, Cheyne Gadson, JaJuan Smith, Charles Rhodes

Losses: Malik Allen, Jamaal Magloire, Tyronn Lue, Juwan Howard 

Projected Wins: 41+

Team Theme Song:  Bruce Springsteen - Glory Days
The best days of this team is behind them and the boss Mark Cuban will be reminiscing on the glory days all season long. 

Overall
With a full season under his belt will the Mavs will Kidd be better? This could very well be his last NBA campaign and things might turn ugly. Dirk Nowitzki won a MVP trophy two years ago but, his elite status is still in question. Jason Terry will provide a nice lift of the bench but, they might need him to start over Stackhouse and Josh Howard is all over the place and the first chance Mark Cuban has to deal the troubled forward he will.

This season will be painful for Mavericks fans to watch and Mark Cuban will have to tell himself the truth about his ball club finally.

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Pacers Trade Shawne Williams To Mavs

Hooped Up | October 14, 2008

Jones in and Williams out, Larry Bird pulls the trigger on a deal in Indiana.

“The Indiana Pacers traded forward Shawne Williams to the Dallas Mavericks for 14-year veteran Eddie Jones, future draft picks and cash, the Pacers said Friday.

Bird, the Pacers’ president, has made it clear he plans to repair the team’s image after several negative off-the-court issues in recent years. Williams, Indiana’s first-round draft pick in 2006, was dogged by three incidents involving police in the past 13 months.

“He’s got a lot of potential,” Bird told the Associated Press. “You hate to give up on those type of players, but with what we’re trying to do here, we felt it was best to move Shawne. This trade wasn’t made because he wasn’t talented enough, it was because of the other things.”

AP

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Mavs Name Westphal VP Of Basketball Operations

Hooped Up | October 6, 2008

Dallas named Paul Westphal executive vice president of basketball operations on Thursday.

The 12-year NBA veteran brings a 25-year coaching career to his new role with the Mavericks. Westphal led Phoenix to the 1993 NBA Finals and was the second- fastest coach in NBA history to reach 150 wins.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are to add Westy to our management team,” said president of basketball operations/general manager Donnie Nelson. “The Mavericks have gained a valuable asset. As a player and coach, Paul has pretty much seen and done it all.”

That includes playing stints in Boston, Phoenix, New York and Seattle. He played for the 1974 NBA-champion Celtics.

The Sports Network

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