Billionaire investor and Shark Tank star Chris Sacca appears on today’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. He weighs in on various topics pertaining to Silicon Valley, but he also makes a prediction that’s of keen interest to the Ringer universe: Mavs owner and Sacca sparring partner Mark Cuban will be president one day. This leaves us with only one question: If Cuban rides into the White House, will he make Dirk his Kissinger? This crazy conversation has been edited and condensed.
Bill Simmons: I’m going to have to mail you a couple of, like, Dallas Mavericks Cuban insults, [so] if it gets heated you can be like, “Well, that’s why you thought the Dampier contract was a good idea!”
Chris Sacca: No … who was the guy they lost? …
B.S.: Oh, DeAndre Jordan.
C.S.: Yes, yes. Yeah, so I dropped that literally right before camera’s rolling and I’m like, “Sorry, too soon? Too soon?” And it just, it always blows up. You can see, he and I always fight on Twitter. That’s how I ended up on the show, I was —
B.S.: Cuban loves it, though. It’s not like a mean-spirited thing with him. He just likes dropping the gloves.
C.S.: We’re homies.
B.S.: Yeah, we’ve gone at it a couple of times. But it’s always good-natured. He’s a good guy.
C.S.: But it’s fun. I get to make fun of him. Like, you get to make fun of him for sports stuff; I get to make fun of him for bad investments.
B.S.: Right, he’s had a few.
C.S.: Like his political stops and starts. By the way, can I make a prediction for the audience?
B.S.: Yeah.
C.S.: I think he’s going to be president of the United States.
B.S.: Mark Cuban?
C.S.: Mark Cuban, I think, will be president of the United States.
B.S.: In … 2024?
C.S.: I think Hillary Clinton wins this election and probably holds on for two terms. Then I think it’s an open field and I think Mark Cuban runs as a very moderate Republican and wins. So think about it, Donald Trump. One of the things I’ve learned that’s just been wild about my own personal journey and watching Cuban, watching Trump, is that the minute you’re labeled a billionaire in this country everyone takes everything you say as bible. It’s just, you can do no wrong, like, they just think, “Well, that guy’s smart, he made a bunch of money, he must be a genius.” And it’s completely untrue, obviously. You know a lot of billionaires who are wrong about a lot of things. Like, I love Mark Cuban, but I think he happens to be wrong more than he’s right, and that’s why we’ve become good friends. But you listen to people who support Donald Trump and you see they just eat at the trough of his bullshit, but they think it’s just all inherently true because, “Look, the guy’s a billionaire, he made these businesses, the United States is a country, it should be run like a business, let’s hire a really successful businessman to do it.” And I think Cuban has all that. Watch the engagement he has on Twitter and you see people just take what he says as gospel, completely.
B.S.: So he’s like a benevolent Trump.
C.S.: That’s exactly right. I think he’s not an idiot, and he actually does care, and he does read, and he is convincible on some things …
B.S.: Well, he also was a great sports owner. … When he came in, people only owned a team one kind of way, and it was kind of the egomaniac sports owner who always went the Steinbrenner type of way. And Cuban bought the team and was like, “Well, do you do it this way? Well, why don’t we do it this way? Well, why don’t we have nicer locker rooms? Well, why isn’t our plane awesome? Well, why don’t we hire more stat guys?” And he just kept asking questions and it became a real competitive advantage for them, and then people ended up just emulating him.
C.S.: I think America loves that guy. I think he’s not an idiot. People take him at his word because he’s a billionaire. I think he’s got crossover appeal. He’s the American dream. I’m putting it right out there right now that Mark Cuban will be president of the United States.
B.S.: And he can use the StairMaster while he’s giving interviews, which I’ve always been impressed by.
This piece originally appeared on the Ringer Facebook page on April 28, 2016.
