Now hiring

Cuban accepts Dairy Queen's management offer

DALLAS (AP) -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is taking on a new job: Dairy Queen manager.

Cuban accepted Thursday an offer from the fast-food chain to manage one of their restaurants for a day to see how hard the job is.

The company's challenge came in response to Cuban's criticism of the NBA's head of officiating, saying "I wouldn't hire him to manage a Dairy Queen." The league fined Cuban $500,000 for the comment, the largest against an individual in NBA history.

"They thought I was disparaging Dairy Queen. Not at all. I didn't want them to go out and hire a bad employee because that might reduce their standards," Cuban said Thursday night before Dallas' game against the New York Knicks.

Minneapolis-based Dairy Queen issued a news release early Thursday that read: "We are certainly impressed that Dairy Queen is top of mind with Mark Cuban. We like the publicity he's generated for us. But Mr. Cuban may be surprised to find out how much it takes to manage a Dairy Queen. We invite Mr. Cuban in to manage a Dairy Queen for a day."

Cuban will work with the company to figure out when and where. He has no favorite location because the one he used to frequent closed.

"That just killed me," he said, adding that he jokingly told the company that "some latent anger" over that shutdown prompted him to use DQ in his punch line. "Actually, it's saved me a few pounds."

Cuban said he wants to wear a uniform with the name "Tony" embroidered on it, for no reason other than he would consider it funny.

He said he's looking forward to making his favorite DQ item: A Blizzard, the restaurant's signature milkshake. Whichever location he ends up at better order plenty of Butterfingers and Reese's Pieces, his favorite flavors.

The NBA has fined Cuban eight times for a total of just over $1 million since he purchased the team in January 2000, mostly for criticizing referees.

Related information
Stories
NBA slaps Cuban with $500,000 fine
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.