Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s path to sports ownership could have looked very different. Before the Dallas Mavericks became his focus, another major league had caught his attention. 

Speaking on NFL linebacker Von Miller’s YouTube channel, Mark Cuban revealed he once considered pursuing the Buffalo Bills. However, after buying the Dallas Mavericks, his emotional connection with the team changed his plans.

“I looked at baseball, looked at football a little bit and even hockey for a little bit, but once I got rolling with the Mavs, it was hard emotionally,” Cuban said. 

Cuban explained that owning the Mavericks became an intense experience for him because of the emotional investment that came with the team’s 82-game season. In his conversation on the Von Miller YouTube channel, he said every game felt personal, especially when the team lost. 

His connection with the Mavericks goes back to 2000, when he bought a majority stake in the franchise for $285 million. Before becoming the owner, he was already a season-ticket holder and regularly followed the team. 

Cuban’s NFL interest was not just hypothetical. When the Buffalo Bills went up for sale in 2014 following the death of longtime owner Ralph Wilson, Cuban said he talked with people about pursuing the team. The Bills were eventually acquired by Terry and Kim Pegula. 

“And so I thought about it. I looked at it. But just emotionally I couldn’t do it,” Cuban said. 

With his strong connection to the Mavericks, Cuban ultimately chose to stay focused on the NBA, as his experience with Dallas shaped his decision not to pursue NFL ownership. 

While Cuban ultimately stepped away from the idea of owning an NFL team, his involvement in sports has also given him a close look at the challenges of managing college athletes. 

Mark Cuban explains why managing college athletes is harder than NBA players

In the same interview, Mark Cuban discussed the challenge with former NFL linebacker Von Miller, explaining why managing college athletes and their finances can be more difficult than running an NBA team. 

“Managing a college football team or basketball team for that matter is harder than an NBA team, right? Because you can go, you can leave after one year, you can go to the transfer portal,” Cuban said. 

He pointed to the financial responsibility that comes with NIL deals as one of the biggest challenges. Unlike young NBA players, college athletes can now receive significant amounts of money at an early age, often without having much experience managing it. 

“Now those kids are 18 years old and going into college, you know, and a freshman coming into Indiana or whatever, getting all this money, trying to manage that as a coach,” Cuban added. “I can't even imagine.” 

Cuban also highlighted the challenges young athletes face when managing money and working with agents and questioned whether some agents genuinely have their best interests in mind.

With NIL changing college sports, Cuban believes managing young athletes and their finances has made college sports even harder to manage.

Written by

Divyanshi Raj