Last offseason's big free agent prize Deron Williams passed on playing in Dallas because its owner was absent from his meeting with the team on July 1.
Where was Mark Cuban on July 1 last year?
He was in California on a panel of potential investors considering offers from aspiring entrepreneurs for ABC's hit reality television series "Shark Tank."
This season however, Mark Cuban is making sure that this year's priority free agents in Dwight Howard and Chris Paul can't use his absence as an excuse to not play for the Mavericks.
"I will be chasing free agents and not at 'Shark Tank' on July 1. So I'll get that out of the way. I've been grinding. I keep that trophy … to remind me every morning what the goal is," Cuban told KRLD-FM. "There's no other focus right now. I've got, I don't know, 70 businesses; they all know right now it's all about basketball."
Hopefully Howard and Paul will appreciate Cuban taking the time to meet with them instead of dousing the dreams of "aspiring entrepreneurs" in front of a national audience.
