Meeting Mark Cuban

Initially this post was entitled “NCTA 2006 Day 2” (a companion post to “NCTA 2006 Day 1“) but since nothing happened on the second day – no pictures of the rich and famous, no cool speakers – I’ve decided to share the story of my brief yet exciting encounter with Mark Cuban (just like Tony’s chance meeting).

Mark was at NCTA as part of his ownership of HDNet and because he was part of a panel discussion on the second day of the conference. To tell the truth, if I had written an “NCTA 2006 Day 2” post, a good portion of it would have been devoted to his comments on that panel.

WOW.

Mark is portrayed a certain way in the press, particularly on Sports Center or NBA on TNT. I gotta say, having heard him speak and chatting with him in person, he’s much more genial and definitely more cerebral than I had perceived.

Previously, I thought he was a bit of a hot-head. An emotional tornado of vitriol for NBA officials, ready to change the TV industry with the lessons learned from Broadcast.com.

The person I met and spoke with and heard speak among a group of very high-powered cable television executives was very thoughtful, patient and strategic. Clearly, this isn’t a revolutionary but an evolutionary.

Mark believes in the power of new technology to change the future, but he has a firm grasp of the past and present and an excellent head for business and commerce.

Plus, the man was in t-shirts and jeans. That’s just cool.

Two anecdotes:

  1. Go Mavs!
  2. What I actually said to Mark was that the Mavs were being screwed by the seeding process of the NBA. He’s blogged about this situation before, but his basic response was that the NBA needed to see the

  3. Bubble on DVD
  4. The main centerpiece of my conversation was showing Mark the photo of Bubble on DVD I took at my local Target. Bubble was released simultaneously in theatres, on DVD and (I believe) on VOD. Mark got a big kick out of the picture and relayed the opinion that he is a big believer in the concept.

    Here’s the picture:
    Bubble

Go Mavs!

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