Transcript: Dallas Mavericks' Mark Cuban

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," July 1, 2005, that was edited for clarity.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (search) was not the only one on the high court who stomped out my guest earlier this week. Mark Cuban is the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and the head of HDNet. He's a billionaire. These sort of things just don't concern him.

But, anyway, he did have a lot of his money in Grokster (search), the Supremes unanimously hitting that company here, the online sort of music site you can download a lot free stuff. That's the problem, I guess. He joins us from Dallas.

Good to have you, Mr. Cuba.

MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: Great to be here, Neil.

CAVUTO: What do you think of her going?

CUBAN: You know, it's kind of like a passing and it's sad on that level. Obviously, like you were talking earlier, it's probably going to be a negative for business, because it creates a lot of uncertainty, until whoever replaces her gets in tuned.

I mean, we saw what happened with some previous justices who, you know, we had one expectation, and an entirely different result. So, the uncertainty is never good for business. So, all in all, you have got to look at it as a negative for business.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, what was her vote on the whole online music thing that hit you?

CUBAN: Well, her vote was against Grokster's, just everybody else's.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

CUBAN: It was unanimous.

But, at the same time, I think this was a decision, when they ruled against Grokster, that was a nobody-was-a-winner decision. It's not like all the sudden, piracy is going to stop in the music industry or in the film industry. So, there weren't any real winners.

CAVUTO: Sort of the like don't ask, don't sell, right? That was kind of like the...

CUBAN: Well, yes, don't ask, don't sell.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

CUBAN: Or it's more like the war on gambling, where, you know, we can make all the rules we want about not gambling, but there's all these little pockets of ways to get around it. And the same thing is going to apply to piracy, whether it's music, books, whatever the case may be.

But there were a lot of losers in this decision, because there wasn't any clarity on what it takes to stop people.

CAVUTO: Yes.

CUBAN: Then, all of sudden, you know, you put the RIAA (search), the music trade industry association, in a position where not only have they already sued I think 11,000 individuals. They are going to be able to take legal potshots at any almost type of digital technology.

We saw it today, I think it was, where Google had to take down several movies that people had uploaded on to their beta video test site.

CAVUTO: Yes. So, what, we just don't know. We don't know.

CUBAN: So, what does that imply for Google?

CAVUTO: But, you know, actually, while I have you here, Mark...

CUBAN: Yes.

CAVUTO: And I don't want to hit you broadside with some news, major news that is breaking. But we just found out that Major League Baseball has gone ahead and suspended Texas pitcher Kenny Rogers (search) for 20 games. This is the dude who…

CUBAN: Twenty games?

CAVUTO: Twenty games.

CUBAN: Wow.

CAVUTO: Pushed a cameraman in the face.

What do you make of that?

CUBAN: That's a lot of games.

Well, I guess it's a little bit different, because he is a pitcher and he really only is going to pitch, in any event, every five days. So, maybe that's like a four or five day suspension for an everyday player.

But, you know, the league has got to take control. We have seen it in the NBA. We've seen it in football. I mean, you can't have a player physically contact media or otherwise. Now, should the media have been a little more responsible? You know, when a guy is having a bad day and says, you know, please don't bother me, you can't just say, hey, I'm doing my job. That's not an excuse for Kenny Rogers to push, trip, force, whatever the case may be, a cameraman. But, at the same time, you know, there's mutual responsibility.

CAVUTO: Yes. But you just defended your coach, too, in the face of attacks on refs, right? So there's a history on this, right?

CUBAN: Well, yes. Well, yes.

Again, it's a mistake. Any time there's physical contact with anybody off the field of play, that is absolutely wrong. But, at the same time, you want to be proactive and try to do all you can to avoid those types of situations from reoccurring.

CAVUTO: Let me ask you. Now, you are one of the smartest investors I know. You got out of the Internet bubble when everyone was still diving in. You became a multibillionaire in the process.

I'm curious. A lot of people, Mark, are saying real estate (search) is the next bubble. Do you buy that?

CUBAN: No, because I can live in a house. I can't live in a share of stock.

CAVUTO: Yes, but a lot of people are buying multiple homes. A lot of people are flipping properties, much like they did with those stocks.

CUBAN: No question.

But, again, you can, you know, pick any stock right now on the stock market. I don't think anybody would say that the stock market is frothy, except for maybe me. But you can take stocks where people are diving.

CAVUTO: Really? You still see the stock market at these levels as frothy?

CUBAN: Yes, I do.

CAVUTO: Really?

CUBAN: I absolutely do.

I mean until dividends and dividend rates start escalating from the Dow, I still think, relative to history, it's still frothy.

You know, one of the things that people, when we try to compare it to previous periods of time, this is an era where we have all these restatements. You know, you one-time restatements almost every quarter for a lot of the big companies.

CAVUTO: Yes. Yes. That's a good point.

CUBAN: And so it's hard to compare apples to oranges — apples to apples and oranges to oranges.

CAVUTO: So, you see no reason to get involved in the stock market. So, what are you involved in? What do you buy?

CUBAN: Well, no, I didn't say there's no reason to get involved in the stock market. I just filed that I owned 9.1 percent of Register.com.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

CUBAN: There's a variety of stocks that I own. But those companies are strategic for me to...

CAVUTO: But that was a very unique pick. I mean, you're clearly averse to the general market.

CUBAN: Well, yes.

CAVUTO: Right? OK.

CUBAN: There's no question. Unless you have an advantage in a stock, you shouldn't just be buying that stock. And same with housing.

CAVUTO: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

CUBAN: Thanks.

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