“Mark Cuban played the greatest April Fools’ Day prank in NBA history”: When the Mavericks’ owner pranked the entire league with antics

Amulya Shekhar | 02/04/2021
"Mark Cuban played the greatest April Fools' Day prank in NBA history": When the Mavericks' owner pranked the entire league with antics

Mark Cuban has long held a reputation as the best owner in the NBA. This throwback incident from April 1st, 2003, is just one of the reasons.

Cuban is a self-made billionaire who made the majority of his money through the sale of broadcast.com. He profited even more after shorting the stock – he acquired $5.7 billion worth of Yahoo! stock from the sale.

He acquired a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks at the start of 2000, forking $285 million. Since then, the franchise has grown to a 2020 valuation of $2.4 billion.

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The best thing about Cuban on the basketball side has been his willingness to help his front office and the coaching staff. Cuban has always made it a priority to invest in the team, maintain a culture. The presence of Dirk Nowitzki made it a must for the team to spend, and Mark always complied.

How Mark Cuban pranked a referee by shoving him on the court on April Fools’ Day

Mark Cuban played what is easily a candidate for the GOAT April Fools’ prank in recent memory. People have been rewinding this clip from 18 years ago to the day.

It features Cuban and a referee having a mock verbal argument. The Mavs’ owner then rushes to lightly shove the referee, who responded with a huge one of his own. The two then come together in hilarious fashion for a fight that seemed real.

Only when Cuban turned around and laughed with the officiating crew did people realize what was going on. Frank Drebin can be seen in the background, confused as hell.

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Post Edited By: Amulya Shekhar
Mark Cuban

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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