So today the new season of Dancing with the Stars started. I'm not an avid fan but today two of some of my favorite people are there: Helio Castroneves and Mark Cuban. Helio is the most adorable human being ever. I had the chance to work with him before and to be around him on very mundane circumstances, and he's always a charm. He's one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met and he always has that big smile on his face. It's just always there! I loved when Drew Lachey, the douche who won the show a couple of seasons ago and who was hosting the show tonight, tried to call Helio out. He said that when he was on the show two seasons ago he didn't smile until the third week. Helio - of course - smiled and said "I guess I have more fun than you." In your face, Lachey! In your face!
And Mark Cuban - man! He's one of those people you either love or hate, so I love him, because I'm pretty much like that too. I even wrote a paper about him a while ago for a radical marketing class I was taking. (I was reading it tonight, so I'm cutting and pasting some stuff here).
Mark Cuban is the epitome of a die-hard, borderline delusional fan. And let's make it clear here that I'm no sports fan. I have no team preference, no technical knowledge or understanding of what sports do to people to freak them out so much. It also blows my mind the fact that major league players become overnight and overpaid millionaires. I think that should be illegal, but that's besides the point. It's one of those things that I'll probably never understand or agree with.
I'm talking about sports teams as businesses. Lucra-fucking-tive businesses. Mark Cuban is a billionaire and he's not even 50. He bought a dead operation and turned it into an elite team, and a big part of it is... well, HIM.
He personally responds to fans emails, he's has permanently changed basketball rules. He likes rap, he looks like immature school boy and most times like a publicity hog. He has been fined way too much money for talking too much, and for having too many outbursts - and each dollar Mark Cuban is fined is matched by himself and donated to charity. Turnover at his companies is almost non-existent.
To me he's a breath of fresh air. He's the epitome of entrepreneurial innovation. He says "we sell sore throats, we sell smiles, we sell the look on your son's or daughter's face when they're standing up and screaming and yelling."
And about Donald Trump he says “ [he] needs to stop drinking his own Kool-Aid. He’s getting sick on himself!... He needs to step away from the Cialis. Those 4 hour erections have started to have an impact on his thinking."
I'm a huge, huge fan of both Dancing With The Stars boys. I say in with the Cubans and Helios, out with the Trumps and Lacheys.
