Move over Scrooge McDuck. There’s a new stingy billionaire in town. $5.7 billion worth Mark Cuban is not above stiffing his players with the bill. And using ingenious little excuses to do it shamelessly too! It’s coming from Dirk Nowitzki, the most decorated player under Cuban’s reign as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and someone who hangs out with him on the regular. So you know it’s true. While sitting opposite Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the German legend played a hilarious game of ‘Most Likely’ and exposed Cuban’s scrooge tendencies.

The highlight of Thanasis’ podcast is picking between made-up scenarios in the game segment. But what the Milwaukee Bucks forward did not know is that the first question was not a fake storyline. He asked Nowitzki, “Between Jason Kidd and Mark Cuban, I want to know who’s most most likely to hit the bathroom right when the check comes in to pay for dinner?” He even told Dirk he didn’t have to be truthful, and it’s hypothetical.

Yet Nowitzki didn’t stutter that it was the former shot-caller of the Mavs. “It’s actually Mark,” Nowitzki said on the Thanalysis Show and confirmed to the NBA pro turned podcaster twice that it’s Mark Cuban. We totally get it.

#211 in the Forbes 400, one of the most successful investors on Shark Tank, brutally honest but also extremely supportive of entrepreneurs, Mark Cuban being cheap? To be fair, Nowitzki admitted that Cuban has hosted the team and paid a lot of bills along the way. However, there have been instances when he’s snuck out before the check comes.

It was the background of a hilarious incident between Cuban and Nowitzki, which the 2011 champ narrated to Antetokounmpo. “What Mark sometimes told me, we get a check at dinner and he’s like, ‘Well, you might as well pay because it’s my money anyways, I’m paying you.'” And just like Thanasis in that moment, Nowitzki couldn’t argue with Cuban on that logic. But they go back and forth in other ways.

Mark Cuban did Dirk Nowitzki dirty

For over a decade, Cuban was the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. But in 2023, he sold his majority stake and now enjoys the perks of a minority co-owner. During that time, the Mavs won its first championship in 2011, led by the Flying Deutschman. It was also the basis of one of the best owner-athlete friendships.

Recently, Cuban genuinely hailed Luka Doncic as one of the best players of the franchise for leading Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time since Nowitzki. That felt like a snub to the guy who actually won, though. So Kevin Hart asked Nowitzki on NBA Unplugged what he thought. Dirk, in his signature humor, said, “The good thing is that Mark doesn’t know anything about basketball.”

He quickly said he was kidding too. Nowitzki also hypes Doncic himself and there are never hard feelings between him and Cuban. Except when it comes to splitting a bill.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.