“It’s been 99 percent positive, except with some of the media,” said the Mavericks owner to Ben & Skin on 105.3 The Fan. “In a topic like this, you’re always going to have people who have to take sides. That’s probably where I’ve gotten the most grief. The good news is I haven’t really watched it; I just got it second hand. It doesn’t matter and I kind of expected it. I knew when I was saying it, it was going to cause a firestorm in some respect.”
Cuban says his controversial talk was geared towards his audience, a group of entrepreneurs and business people — something that’s lost on those who have picked his speech apart line-by-line.
“It’s something they’re going through, particularly since all the Donald Sterling stuff brought a lot of attention to them,” said Cuban. “Whenever I give a talk or get interviewed, I try to be appropriate to the audience. It was certainly appropriate to discuss my feelings and how I approached it.”
Cuban said he would give the same speech the “same way, everyday”, with one exception.
Many took offense to Cuban’s example of a “black kid in a hoodie”, saying it too closely resembled the Treyvon Martin case from 2012. Cuban says he’s reached out to the Martin family by email to apologize, and they responded.
“It’s kind of unfortunate that the hoodie part of it kind of misdirected everybody from the conversation. For the people that were really interested in the subject or cared about the importance of the subject — and for those who actually run their own business or are starting their own business — it was informative and hopefully helpful.”