Once a Harsh Critic, Mark Cuban Now Says Trump Is Our ‘No. 1 Draft Pick’

Mark Cuban Image by Flickr

By Nathan Guttman December 8, 2016

Billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has made a sharp reverse, from being an attack dog for the Democrats to giving Donald Trump his full-throated endorsement.

“Donald Trump is our No. 1 draft pick,” Cuban told CNBC Wednesday. Sticking with the basketball metaphor, he explained: “He’s who we put our hopes and dream with. Now it is easier because we haven’t played a game yet. No reason to rush to judgment or come to any conclusions now. Let’s see what happens starting January 21st and we’ll go from there. I hope he’s a superstar.”

This is an abrupt reversal for someone who taunted taunted Trump relentlessly. Before the election, Cuban predicted that if Trump wins, the stock market would “tank” and that his election would be the “worst thing possible” for Wall Street.

Now, Cuban is not only willing to give Trump a chance, he’s also downplaying the importance of the president-elect’s Twitter rants. Twitter, he said, is merely a “way to reach other celebs, other verified users, and reach the media.”

In late November Cuban was spotted sitting in a New York coffee shop with Trump adviser and former Breitbart chief Steve Bannon. Cuban said this is “not a topic for now.”

“What was that all about?” the reporter pressed Cuban.

“Coffee,” Cuban answered.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO