Dallas billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban - best known for his ownership of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks - has long flirted with the idea of running for office ...
As in, the highest office.
He has over the years both befriended and jousted with now-President Donald Trump, and he apparently came close to doing the latter officially in the capacity of a candidate for Vice President.
Cuban has revealed that Kamala Harris invited him to submit the needed information in order for him to be considered as her running mate last year ... but that he opted to decline.
And why?
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller this week posed the question to Cuban ...
“There was some green room gossip at MSNBC,” Miller said. “You ready for this? You ready? I wouldn’t tell you this if it wasn’t pretty good. Somebody I kind of trust said that they asked you to send in VP vetting papers and you said, ‘No, the list would be too long.’ Is that true?”
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“It is true,” replied Cuban, who did become a prominent Harris supporter during her failed 2024 campaign.
“Why didn’t you consider, I mean, you ended up there campaigning with her, advising her,” Miller asked.
Said Cuban: “The second part of that, my response was, 'I’m not very good as the No. 2 person. And so if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president that, no, that’s a dumb idea. Right?
"And I’m not real good at the shaking hands and kissing babies.”
We've known Cuban for 30 years (yes, before he became famous and before he became a billionaire), on a personal and professional level. So we feel qualified to respond ...
1 - Cuban is a good and trusting delegator, but he is also habitually hands-on and in charge. (Which is why his recent sale of the Dallas Mavericks and the fact it leaves him largely on the outside looking in is so stunning.)
2 - And ... he is actually very, very good at "shaking hands and kissing babies'' when he views the cause as being right.
3 - He has an ego, but Cuban's foray into politics would not be for personal gain. His desire to "make a better world'' is legit, as evidenced by his investment in @costplusdrugs.
4 - And one more thing: Cuban has often, in one-on-one visits, told DallasBasketball.com that the reason he doesn't want to dive into politics is because of the unfair way it puts a family in the spotlight. So in theory, maybe when his kids reach adulthood, Cuban, now 66, could take a stab at it.
Harris ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential nominee from a final trio that also included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.
“I mean, obviously it would have been different,'' Cuban said of him vs. Walz. "My personality is completely different than Tim’s. My experiences, my backgrounds are completely different. I think I’ve cut through the (expletive) more directly. I’m not a politician. And so it would have been different, but it would have been awful.
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“She would have fired me within six days!” he added jokingly.