Posts
8255
Joined
7/2/2009
Location
CO
US
Edited Date/Time
10/17/2013 7:55pm
Due to the federal shutdown I'm currently out of work, but certainly not complaining.
In the meantime to pass the time I have been bouncing between the Dallas District Court and the Federal Court in Dallas to watch interesting trials.
Today I was able to watch an entire day of Mark Cuban's testimony as he defended an insider trading allegation.
To begin the day I was a bit biased against Cuban. I hate the Mavericks and thought Cuban was a rich spoiled brat. I just had the feeling that the allegations were true.
So he is called to the stand today by the Security Exchange Commission's lawyer and is absolutely grilled for three hours.
After the government has finished with its questioning of Cuban the judge adjourns the court for a lunch break and everyone files out of the courtroom. As I am standing waiting for the elevator with two girls who have come with me to watch, Cuban and his team of about 7 lawyers approach the same bank of lifts.
My friend, a Dallas resident and huge Mavs fan takes out her phone and snaps a quick picture. Cuban notices the flash, turns, and walks directly to her.
At this point I'm thinking he is going to flip. I was expecting him to slap her phone out of her hands or make some sort of big scene. It certainly would not have been justified, but I can see that he was in a very vulnerable position for the past three hours defending himself as the government's best lawyer is trying to get him to slip up -- I was expecting fireworks. His adrenaline must have been jacked at this point.
He grabs my friend's phone and says "let's take a selfie!" He stands with my two friends and takes a picture of himself and them! Literally less than two minutes after getting off the stand he makes these girls' day. It was one of the most unexpected acts of generosity that I have ever seen. Needless to say, it made a huge impression on me and the girls that I was with.
After lunch, the court reconvenes and it's his lawyer's turn to cross Cuban. I'll spare the boring details but after hearing both sides of his story I am, at this point, thinking that these charges will not stand up.
Today will be something that I will never forget. My opinion of Cuban has completely changed. It's awesome and humbling to have my impression of a person completely flipped.
[EDIT: Spelling]
In the meantime to pass the time I have been bouncing between the Dallas District Court and the Federal Court in Dallas to watch interesting trials.
Today I was able to watch an entire day of Mark Cuban's testimony as he defended an insider trading allegation.
To begin the day I was a bit biased against Cuban. I hate the Mavericks and thought Cuban was a rich spoiled brat. I just had the feeling that the allegations were true.
So he is called to the stand today by the Security Exchange Commission's lawyer and is absolutely grilled for three hours.
After the government has finished with its questioning of Cuban the judge adjourns the court for a lunch break and everyone files out of the courtroom. As I am standing waiting for the elevator with two girls who have come with me to watch, Cuban and his team of about 7 lawyers approach the same bank of lifts.
My friend, a Dallas resident and huge Mavs fan takes out her phone and snaps a quick picture. Cuban notices the flash, turns, and walks directly to her.
At this point I'm thinking he is going to flip. I was expecting him to slap her phone out of her hands or make some sort of big scene. It certainly would not have been justified, but I can see that he was in a very vulnerable position for the past three hours defending himself as the government's best lawyer is trying to get him to slip up -- I was expecting fireworks. His adrenaline must have been jacked at this point.
He grabs my friend's phone and says "let's take a selfie!" He stands with my two friends and takes a picture of himself and them! Literally less than two minutes after getting off the stand he makes these girls' day. It was one of the most unexpected acts of generosity that I have ever seen. Needless to say, it made a huge impression on me and the girls that I was with.
After lunch, the court reconvenes and it's his lawyer's turn to cross Cuban. I'll spare the boring details but after hearing both sides of his story I am, at this point, thinking that these charges will not stand up.
Today will be something that I will never forget. My opinion of Cuban has completely changed. It's awesome and humbling to have my impression of a person completely flipped.
[EDIT: Spelling]
I think he's probably a good dude who is normally misunderstood.
But what I didn't realize until his testimony today is that he is a self-made man.
His parents grew up poor and came to his money on his own. He is admittedly extremely fortunate, but he was on the grind for a long time to get where he is now.
Before today I assumed he was born rich.
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Good for him, at least he has fun with it and is not afraid to call out the bullshit right or wrong.
He could pay what this civil suit is asking for with his debit card. I doubt he was too freaked out.
He was self-made $$, & is super cool. He always goes to mavs games in jeans & a t-shirt. He often sits with the regular fans. He was the 1st NBA owner to go above & beyond for his players & calls out Stern. He does tons of charity work. He is huge into entreprenuralship type programs. He's the kinda guy you could go chill out wit & have some beers.
MLB hosed him 2 years ago when he tried to buy a team.
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Good on Cuban though.
Through all of this I couldn't help but think about how silly the insider trading law is.
It came down to whether Cuban thought the info he received was confidential.
That's a very difficult proposition to prove even in a civil trial.
I think reded nailed Mark's personality. He's just misunderstood often. I think that's intentional though. Mark makes me a Mavs fan.
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