EightBlack.

My disclaimer right up front with this post is that I’m an Aussie, so my understanding and appreciation of American sports is limited. I know Mark Cuban first and foremost as a prolific and outspoken blogger, and not the even more (apparently), loud and obnoxious owner of the Dallas Mavericks. (How some guy parts with $285 million for a basketball team in Texas which is made up of tall skinny blokes who run around and play basketball is beyond me. But hey, it’s his money).

Given that 50% of the audience who reads my humble blog reside in the US, let me digress for a minute.

I remember when I used to live in the states, being exposed to the passion that is College football so I do have some appreciation for how Americans love their sports.

I lived in Omaha (okay, laugh if you will) and as soon as we moved into our new house, a very large guy came to the door with a 12-gauge shotgun and a Cornhuskers sweatshirt and some beer holders. Apparently, in Nebraska, that’s how you welcome people to the neighborhood.

I sort of didn’t argue. I welcomed him in and then thought, “Oh christ, he’s going to want a beer now and the last thing I want to do is drink a Bud Light with guy holding a small canon”. I wasn’t scared of getting shot. My wife has threatened to shoot me many times. What I was fearful of was inhaling something called a Bud Light - which is sort of like drinking stale cats pee filtered through a jockstrap.

He then said both the gun and Cornhuskers stuff were mine to keep. I sort of got the impression that if I wanted to root for another team, that really wasn’t an option. Which it wasn’t.

I became good friends with my new neighbour and once when we were out driving, I asked him “Hey Jay, what’s all the fuss about Tom Osborne”. Tom Osborne, for the visually impaired, used to be the coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Apparently, in the Nebraska version of the bible, when it refers to the “Good Lord”, it actually refers to Osborne, and not the other guy. I continued. “Hey Jay, what if I walked into that bar over there and yelled out at the top of my voice….”Tom Osborne has sex with goats!”".

He didn’t smile. He just turned to me and said…”Well, if you did make it out alive and without being shot 22 times while running for the door, you’d survive just long enough until someone called Billy Bob or Thelma tied you to the back of a pick up and drove you all the way to Iowa”.

Holy cow, how the hell did we end up talking about Tom Osborne, sex and goats.

Sorry. I digressed.

Anyway, back to Mark Cuban. His closing speech at Blogworld, in front of a packed house of over 1000 people would have made his PR agency proud. I thought he spoke exceptionally well. He’s likeable, he can handle a crowd, he know’s his technology stuff and he speaks his mind. As soon as he finished, the questions came thick and fast and would have kept going until they turned off the lights (which they nearly had to do).

When I say “likeable”, I mean that in a cheeky, roguish sort of way. Cuban would be the guy your wife would worry about you being out late with - because at the very least, a lot of alcohol, strippers, tequila shots, more strippers and the odd bar fight would definitely be involved. And that’d be before the night really got started.

Mind you, this is the second time in the last month that I have heard 2 billionaires talk to roughly the same size audience. The first was John Doerr (who was amazing). And now Cuban. It makes me think that being a billionaire can’t be all that bad.

Cuban has been blogging since 2003 and during that time, has generated both a groundswell of support for his cause (and rants) and an army of hatred against his beloved basketball team, his ability to dance (or lack of) and everything else in between. Cuban was a recent finalist on the US version of “Dancing With The Stars”. His partner was Aussie Kym Johnson. I never saw it but you can just tell that him not making it past the 4th week really urked him.

If you look at any of his recent blog posts, the guy gets an absolute boatload of responses and comments. We’re talkin’ three or four hundred sometime. Per post.

One thing is for sure - he hates losing. At anything. He’d be tough to work for because the same demands he’d put on himself, would probably be placed on you. But this is an unfair assumption that I’m just making up. He might be a sane, rational, likeable, generous boss.

Hollywood makes movies about guys like Cuban. He’s all American. He thinks he’s indestructible. And he’s incredibly popular - either positively or negatively.

One thing is undisputable. The guy knows how to blog.

The video above is around an hour and fifteen. Just do me a favour though. If you’re going to sit down and watch it with a drink, please, please, grab anything but a Bud Light. Enjoy.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Blogging For Business, People, Video Content, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.