For Cubanistas, Tuesday night was prime-time entertainment as the "billionaire entrepreneur," Mark Cuban, made his debut on ABC's Dancing With the Stars.
His fox trot may have been his dancing debut, but the day-after moment everyone is likely to be talking about is from the training video, when he raised his shorts and revealed the scar left from his hip-replacement surgery in June – red and welted, it looked like a centipede crawling across his hip. Combined with the frequent shots of Mr. Cuban wincing and grabbing his leg above the knee where, he explained, the rod from his new hip connects with the rest of his leg, cast the brash Mavs owner in an improbable and unfamiliar light – sympathetic underdog.
Obviously intent on scoring every brand-enhancing bang out of all his billions of bucks, Mr. Cuban dressed up/down as a well-tailored hobo, in a brown suit complete with tails and patches. To complete the billionaire-bum theme, he and partner Kym Johnson danced to a version of Roger Miller's "King of the Road." Mr. Cuban danced with a lot of heart; he showed a lot of enthusiasm. He's been around the locker room long enough to recognize such praise for what it is: a nice way of saying he tried hard and had a good time, but wasn't very good.
From the way he was singing along, you might have thought he had confused the show he was on with a celebrity version of American Idol . And if you gave him the benefit of friendly handicapping (the recent surgery, never danced before, not a professional entertainer) – which the judges were all too happy to do – then his score of 21 out of a possible 30, with a seven from each judge, was appropriate.
But as the trio of judges observed, amid the coos and burbles over talking to an actual billionaire, his "technique needs work" and his "posture was lacking." He ended in a three-way tie for second – while boxer Floyd Mayweather, after putting in a great performance, was robbed and dropped into last place.
Based on his debut, Cuban fans better get their fix while they can, because it looks to be a short season for Dallas' favorite billionaire.
