Getty Image / Allen Berezovsky
As far as billionaires go, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk are cut from a different cloth than most of their contemporaries in the sense that they are very public figures who are chronically online and don’t shy away from injecting themselves into the conversation du jour.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently a guest on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast where he revealed that he will leave Shark Tank after Season 16. They’re currently airing season 15 so next season will be his last. Later in the episode, Stephen Jackson straight-up asked Mark Cuban what his problem with Elon Musk is. Here’s the video with quotes below:
Stephen Jackson: “What do you have against Elon Musk?”
Mark Cuban: “I don’t have anything against him, right? I think he’s f—– up Twitter. But the guy’s a genius. He’s probably the best entrepreneur of our generation. So I’ll give him props.”
Stephen Jackson: “He definitely f—– up Twitter. Nobody uses it. He even said it’s dropped (in use).”
Mark Cuban: “Oh, you can’t. You’re just going to go get s—. So unless I’m talking about Cost Plus or putting out props for somebody… Because you’re just going to get s— about everything, it’s a cesspool. But… I drive a Tesla. I’ll give him his props. He build something… You can have multiple (lanes?)…”
This time last year, Mark Cuban was tweeting at Elon Musk and ripping him apart for what Elon had done to Twitter, which is now known as X. That’s just one example but there is an established history of Mark Cuban criticizing Elon.
That certainly makes what Mark Cuban had to say more interesting. I was also amazed by the nonchalance of Mark Cuban and Stephen Jackson talking about Twitter as if it’s a complete afterthought.
They also talked about Mark Cuban’s relationship with other NBA owners:
Matt Barnes: “Are there any owners you have like a friendly rivalry or maybe not even friendly, just like a rivalry that you really enjoy beating or going up against?”
Mark Cuban: “Not really… I’m not really close to the other owners. Like I don’t know Matt Ish (Matthew Ishbia) very well, I just said hi to him, the new guy in Phoenix. Ryan Smith, the guy in Utah is cool. We’ll talk. (Steve) Ballmer will talk some. But it’s always just NBA business. It’s not like we’re just hanging out or doing anything. I’ve never just gone out and hung out… I’ve got my friends, y’know?”
It would be a lot cooler if they had a group text for trash talk, wouldn’t it?