Has Mark Cuban been Charged with Insider Trading?

I am getting numerous emails and IMs from my friends in the financial world that Mark Cuban was just charged with insider trading for Mamma.com shares.  I have not been able to find anything that confirms this yet.  Ill post more once additional information comes to light.

In the meantime, check out all the people twittering about this

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mark+cuban

Update: http://online.wsj.com/public/us The WSJ has this story as breaking news on their homepage

Update II: Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was sued by U.S. regulators over claims he made illegal insider trades in shares of Internet search company Mamma.com Inc.      The Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil suit, filed today at federal court in Dallas, seeks to impose unspecified fines and confiscate gains from the trades in 2004, the agency said in a statement.  –Editors: Otis Bilodeau  To contact the reporter on this story: David Scheer in New York at +1-212-617-2358 or dscheer@bloomberg.net.  To contact the editors responsible for this story: Otis Bilodeau at +1-212-617-3921 or obilodeau@bloomberg.net

My 2 cents on the Mavs - they just arent that good.  The team isnt meshing well, their bench is weak, Kidd isnt what he used to be and Dirk is still scarred from losing in the first round of his MVP season.  They will make the playoffs despite their slow start, but their championship window closed 2 years ago.

There is a rumor that the Mavs will pursue Marbury once his contract is bought out.  I will say this once - STAY AWAY.  MARBURY IS WORSE THAN CANCER.

It's a New Day.....

I have purposely avoided writing about the Knicks this season.  Call me superstitious, but I was fearful that I would jinx all the good mojo that is in the air.  The past few years, the Knicks have been the epitome of everything that can go wrong with an NBA franchise.  Too much money spent on too many players that care too much about themselves and too little about the team.  No heart, no soul, no respect for the game or the fans.  Isiah will go down in history as the worst GM/Coach in the history of the NBA.  Marbury will go down as one of biggest wastes of talent the game has ever seen.

Well, today I hesitantly declare that it’s a new day.  Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni are slowly bringing respect back to the Knicks.  When Isiah was fired, it was a good step from management.  But the signals we have gotten since then have been so incredibly promising.  It started with the benching of Marbury.  Refusing to waive him or buy him out, they are forcing him to sit and watch while the team he always dreamed of playing for is regaining hope….without him.  It continued with the benching of Eddy Curry, another player with all the talent in the world who was missing the desire to play and win.  Even though we are only 6 games into the season, this current Knicks roster is playing with more chemistry than last years team had at any point.  Their confidence is starting to come back and with it, hope is returning to the Garden.

Mike D’Antoni was nervous that us fans would expect the Knicks to be playoff contenders this year.  Well Mike, you are in for a pleasant surprise.  Knicks fans just want to see a group of guys that play hard every night.  We want to see a team - not a bunch of prima donna superstars.  If the Knicks continue to play hard, something I predict they will do, the fans will support you beyond your wildest dreams.

The dark cloud surrounding the Knicks is slowly passing away.  It’s a new day….

The video below is inspirational for different reasons .  If I knew how, I would remix it to show the current Knicks team.  For now, use your imagination.  And also be happy that Obama won

Twitter…Fantasy Basketball…Am I really serious?

Yes!

After your draft, the single most important thing you can do to stay competitive in your league is staying on top of player news.  In today’s information age, however, the person with the most information doesnt necessarily win.  It’s the person that gets the information first that has the real advantage.  Being the first in your league with information on trades, injuries, scores and suspensions can literally make or break your team.  The info will influence your trades, which players you drop and which players you pick up.  Trust me - I know this from experience.  Last year, I picked up Hedo Turkoglu after seeing a very impressive stat line in an early season game.  Hedo ended up being an fantasy bball rockstar last year and helped me win the league championship for the first time ever.

So how does Twitter play into all of this?  Through the amazing power of Twitter search.  With Twitter search, you can put in a keyword and see tweets happening in real time that contain your keyword.  The best way to explain the power of this is through example.  On the first day of the NBA season I found myself checking the box score for the Lakers/Trailblazers game before going to bed.  According to the box score, Greg Oden had only played 12 minutes in the first half and, midway through the 3rd quarter, had not returned to the game.  I had a feeling Oden was hurt, but didnt know how to confirm.  The announcers werent saying anything (the injury happened 2 quarters ago), the box score only gave me minutes played, and a google search was, for once, unhelpful.  So, I turned to twitter search and typed in the keyword Oden.  I was literally amazed by the results.  NBA fans from around the country who were watching the game were twittering updates on Oden’s health.  As it turns out, Oden got hurt in the first quarter and never returned.  Using twitter search, I got this information about an hour before anyone who wasnt watching the game live. Info in hand, I picked up back up center Joel Pryzbilla, a rebounding machine who will become a valuable throw in player for a trade later on in the season.

If you are serious about winning your league, you have to use all the tools at your disposal to gain an edge on the competition.  Twitter is the most impressive tool I have seen in a while for this.  Now stop being lazy and set up a twitter account and follow me @jbeyda

Shame on ESPN for not making the video shareable.  Below are some Marquise videos I found on Youtube.

• Rafer Alston - Skip to My Lou
• Chris Anderson - The Birdman (only because of his disastrous Slam Dunk Contest performance)
• Gilbert Arenas - Hibachi
• Kobe Bryant - The Black Mamba (this could be my favorite)
• Vince Carter - Half Man Half Amazing (I really couldnt leave this out given the name of my blog)
• Tim Duncan - The Big Fundamental (is there a better way of describing this guy?)
• Robert Horry - Big Shot Bob (I prefer Bob to Rob but both are acceptable)
• Shaq - The Big Aristotle (aka The Smartest Man in the NBA)
• Dwayne Wade - Flash

The early 90’s were the best of times and the worst of times for Knicks fans.  Incredible regular seasons invariably ended with disappointing post season defeats that usually came at the hands of legends like Jordan, Miller and Hakeem.  But at the start of every post season, we were optimistic because we had a legend of our own, Patrick Ewing.  My favorite part of every postseason was the annual Patrick Ewing guarantee that this would be the year that the Knicks would win it all.  Maybe I was crazy but every year I trusted that guarantee.

Sadly for Ewing (and for us fans), that championship year never came.  We got oh-so-close in 94, when we lost game 7 of the final to the Rockets, but that was the closest we would ever get.  Shortly thereafter, Knicks fans (myself included) turned on Ewing.  Years of heartbreak took a toll on us and we became increasingly frustrated that our own legend was a pretender to the crown.  Cheers turned to boos and no one got it worse than Patrick.  Most players would have turned on the fans but Patrick Ewing wasnt most players.  Even when things were at their worst, Ewing played his heart out and did everything he could to help us win.

The past few awful years of Knicks basketball have made me realize one important thing.  Even when things were at their worst, Ewing never lost our respect.  We never looked at him the way we look at losers like Starbury.  I couldn’t be happier for Ewing that he made the hall of fame and look forward to the day when a new NBA star brings respect back to the Garden.

This field of sports marketing 2.0 is relatively young but already has some accomplished executives leading the charge.  One such exec is Pat Coyle, Executive Director of Digital Business for the Indianapolis Colts, author of the Sports Marketing 2.0 blog, founder of the mycolts.net social network and organizer of the Sports Marketing 2.0 Summit.  That is a pretty nice resume.  ☺  Over the coming weeks, I will be referencing a lot of his posts and giving my take on how his thoughts apply to the NBA.  Pat is a thought leader in the field and team executives at every level should read his blog.

One web 2.0 tool that I am hoping teams and players embrace is Twitter.  If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, Wikipedia has a pretty good definition.  According to Wikipedia, Twitter is “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”  People use twitter to promote their blogs, give reactions to current event, tell their followers what they are doing and have conversations with their followers.  For NBA teams and players, twitter is a potentially phenomenal tool to keep fans up to date on training camp, life on the road, tough games and championship dreams.  As a Knicks fan, I would happily follow an official team twitter account that is updating me multiple times a day on training camp, injuries and team morale.  This kind of “team streaming” (as opposed to life streaming) would be fascinating to follow.

I don’t have too many readers yet, but would love some comments on how you think your favorite team could use the web to interact with you.

I have always respected Mark Cuban. He went from nothing to being the owner of the Mavs. He worked hard and fulfilled his childhood dreams. Financial success aside, what amazes me about Mark is how he uses his blog to talk to Mavs fans. His readers get amazing insight into where the team is going, why decisions were made, and just how much Mark cares about this team. If you havent read any of his posts, i suggest you read his post from last Friday. In it he talks about the team’s struggles at the beginning of the season, why they traded for J Kidd and why the future looks bright. It’s simply a phenomenal post that should make any Mavs fan happy about the future and happy that Mark is the owner.

One of the title’s for this post is “I Wish Mark Cuban Owned the Knicks.” I wrote that because the Isiah Thomas Era was so frustrating for Knicks fans. Every move that he made as the GM and the Coach had little rhyme or reason. Trade for Steve Francis, sign Jerome James, trade for Zach Randolph, hire and fire Larry Brown in the blink of an eye, try out 52,000 difference starting lineups, etc. Knicks fans were kept in the dark about why decisions were made and how they would help the team. It was too much, too fast and it became clear very quickly that Isiah had no idea what he was doing.

The Isiah Thomas Era is thankfully over. The Donnie Walsh Era has begun. Before Donnie makes too many moves (he just signed Mike D’Antoni to a 4-year, $24 million contract), I would like to give him (and our owner Jim Dolan) some advice. Look at how Mark Cuban keeps Mavs fans in the loop and copy that model. Understand that fans in general are rational, passionate, and extremely knowledgeable. We understand teams go through ups and downs. During the downs, we just want an idea of what the team executives are doing to fix the problem, why they are doing it and how long they think it will take to see results. Combine that with players that play with heart every night and we will be ecstatic. We know that you can’t tell the future and that things probably wont go as planned. That’s fine with us. Just please be transparent and keep us in the loop. Use a blog, use twitter, create a social network with Ning - it really doesnt matter. There are tons of options out there. Just keep us in the loop and use the web to not only talk to us but to let us talk to you. I predict that if you do that the bad times wont be as bad, fan loyalty will only increase and the good times will be that much sweeter.

Mark Cuban understands the importance of talking to Mavs fans uses his blog as an outlet. Donnie and Dolan, I hope you copy his model. Go Knicks!

Last night the Spurs played the Hornets in Game 1 of the Western Semis.  First thing that occurred to me was that the Spurs did not have home court advantage.  I knew this before the game started but actually seeing the Spurs surrounded by yellow shirts in game 1 of the semis was very surreal.  The torch is passing.

The game itself was close til the end when the hornets, not the spurs, went into kill mode and put the champs away.  It was an incredible site to watch.  Chris Paul single handedly picked apart their defense and slaughtered the Spurs.  David West had the game of his life offensively and helped hold duncan to only FIVE points for the game.  Tyson Chandler grabbed every loose ball possible.  Peja sank his jumpers.  The result - a 19 point blow out win.

While everyone played great, especially west, it still all comes back to Paul.  Barring injuries, Paul will go down as one of the greatest PGs to play the game. Last night, when he took over, the spurs had no answer for him.  It was like he was toying with the Champs.  He was far and away the best player on the court at the end of the game and rightfully deserved the MVP chants.

In game 2 the spurs will make adjustments and duncan will score more than 5 points.  I still think the Spurs win this series because I give points for experience and for having the best PF ever.  But it will go the full 7 and the hornets will start next season as one of the favorites to win the title.