Mark Cuban’s Talk With Pharrell Williams Made Him Drop NBA ‘Owner’ Title (EXCLUSIVE)

Mark Cuban is doing his part to fight for racial equality.

The “Shark Tank” personality got candid with Access Daily hosts Kit Hoover and Scott Evans about his decision to drop his NBA title as Dallas Mavericks’ “owner” to “proprietor.”

(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

The term “owner” is used across sports as a label for the executives that hold a majority stake in a franchise, but it’s been getting pushback for quite some time due to racial insensitivity. It gained attention back in 2018 when Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green appeared on LeBron James’ show, “The Shop” and pleaded his case against the title.

“You shouldn’t say ‘owner,'” Draymond said. “You should say, ‘majority shareholder,’ or something like that.”

In 2017, Draymond also raised the argument while talking to reporters.

“When you look at the word ‘owner,’ it really dates back to slavery. The word ‘owner,’ ‘master’—it dates back to slavery… we just took the words and we continued to put it to use,” Draymond said at the time.

Mark explained that he was at first a bit apprehensive about dropping his title, but he quickly changed his stance after having a conversation with Pharrell Williams at Super Bowl 2020.

(Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)

“At the time, I was defensive about it. I was like, ‘Look we own these teams, we earned them.’ But then I had a talk with Pharrell Williams … and Pharrell and I had a great talk, he really got me to really understand the perspective I haven’t really considered.”

Mark shared that after his talk with the entertainer, he officially changed his title from “owner” to “proprietor” of the Dallas Mavericks on the team’s website.

“Even though people still refer to me as an ‘owner’ and I don’t really fight it or anything, I just wanted it to be known that I recognize that it can be a sensitive issue to a lot of African Americans, and I respected it and acknowledged it,” he shared to Kit and Scott.

Adding, “It sends the message that we’re recognizing that it’s a discussion we need to have.”

(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Mark also got candid about the need for people to “open our minds,” including understanding white privilege.

“We’ve got to start recognizing that white privilege isn’t about any one individual, it’s about our country in general,” he said. “It’s the fact that growing up White you have certain advantages that African American … particularly African American men don’t have.”

Adding, “Once we start recognizing that, we can start having more difficult conversations … and when you see subtle racism … know that it’s not right.”

He ended his powerful conversation on Access Daily by asking, “Why wouldn’t you take the steps to make this country and the world better?”

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