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Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban struck back at fellow billionaire Ross Perot Jr. in a court filing Tuesday, saying Perot is wrongly seeking money to offset some $100 million in losses on the Victory Park real estate development.
Cuban's volley came in response to a lawsuit filed last month in which Perot alleged that the Mavs were "insolvent and/or in imminent danger of insolvency" and called for a court-appointed receiver to run the team.
At the time, Cuban denied the allegation and said there was no chance he would lose control of the team. In his court filing Tuesday, he said Perot was the one with money trouble.
"His couch cushions having been turned over, Perot now wrongly looks to Cuban and the Mavericks as a remedy for his financial distress," the filing said.
Perot had no comment late Tuesday, spokesman Eddie Reeves said.
Perot's lawsuit, filed in state district court in Dallas, pits Perot-controlled Hillwood Investment Properties III Ltd. against Cuban-controlled Radical Mavericks Management LLC.
The lawsuit marked the second time in a year that Perot has sued Cuban.
In 2009, Perot sued Cuban over profits from the company that operates American Airlines Center. At the time, Cuban accused Perot of "trying to find nickels in the sofa cushion."
Perot sold a majority share in the Mavs to Cuban in 2000, but still owns a 5 percent stake.
In his filing Tuesday, Cuban defended his 10-year record as majority owner of the Mavs and contrasted his results with those of Perot, who bought a majority stake in the team in 1996 from Dallas businessman Don Carter.
"By 1999, Perot's Mavericks were named the worst professional sports franchise of the 1990s," Cuban's filing said, adding that the team was seen as "the wasteland of the NBA."
"Indeed, former players accused Perot of putting their safety at risk by selecting inexpensive accommodations in questionable neighborhoods and by having the team travel in an airplane plagued by mechanical problems," the filing said.
By contrast, Cuban said he has invested in revitalizing the Mavs. He has incurred "significant personal expense" in his efforts, including the purchase of a Boeing 757, according to his filing.
Under Cuban's stewardship, the Mavs have won 50 games or more for 10 consecutive seasons and ramped up revenue, he said.
Meanwhile, the filing said, the team's estimated value rose from $141 million at the end of 1999, or 22nd in the NBA, to $446 million at the end of 2009, or seventh in the NBA, according to Forbes magazine.
While Cuban was building the Mavs' franchise over the last decade, Perot and his company Hillwood were developing the Victory project around AAC.
Cuban declined Perot's offer to invest in Victory, but Cuban was involved in planning and completing AAC, according to the Tuesday court filing.
During the arena's construction, Cuban said, Hillwood entities developing the new arena also were developing infrastructure for Victory. Auditors found that Hillwood entities improperly allocated more than $1 million of Victory's costs to AAC, Cuban alleged.
That error was corrected, according to Cuban's filing.
But Victory did not turn out successfully for Perot. Hillwood, under pressure from lenders, gave up its ownership position in most of the Victory buildings in 2009.
"Perot's management of the Victory Park development turned out to be worse than his management of the Mavericks in the 1990s," Cuban's filing said. "Notably, it was only after Perot's position in Victory Park became desperate and he no longer needed his Mavericks ownership to attract tenants to Victory Park that he, through Hillwood, began to inquire about Cuban's management of the Mavericks."
