AMERICAN CENTURY CELEBRITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2003

Mark Cuban

Jason Kidd

MARK CUBAN: Thanks, everybody for taking the time to get on the call. Like everybody, as we watched the events unfold in Iraq, my wife and I were watching and we all talked about supporting the troops. As we talked, we realized that we've been unbelievably blessed here, directly as a result of the efforts of service people throughout the years, supporting and protecting this country. We just felt it was the right thing to do to create a Fallen Patriot Fund.

What the Fallen Patriot Fund is, it's a fund that provides financial assistance to the families of those who have lost loved ones serving our country in Operation: Iraqi Freedom. To date, we've had over 300,000 plus troops and unfortunately more than 200 of them have not come home, leaving families behind, in very uncertain situations in many cases.

The Fallen Patriot Fund provides funding to those households to help them transition in very difficult times. We've had scenarios where we've had families that have a pregnant wife at home and her husband was killed or newborn twins, just a variety of circumstances. And I've committed contributing up to $1 million in matching funds, and to this point, we are well on our way there. We have had more than 200,000 donations from around the world and have already begun providing financial assistance.

So we started the fund April 17 and we continue to push forward. We are really excited to be working with Jason, with NBA, with American Century to help bring additional visibility to the Fallen Patriot Fund and obviously to get additional funding.

I'm happy to answer any questions. The Web site address is www.FallenPatriotFund.org. You can get additional information on the families. We have worked with all of the initiatives of the fund.

The other final point, in addition to the money that we contribute in the matching fund, 100% of all of the expenses, administrative and otherwise, are covered separately by me out-of-pocket, so that 100% of the monies contributed go directly to the family.

So with that I'm happy to open it you to questions.

Q. I'm wondering if there's any particular family or something that has touched you, maybe a family that's in the Dallas area or anything like that? Any anecdotal sort of thing?

MARK CUBAN: Haven't had anybody locally in Dallas, but you can't help being touch by all of the families. To visit a family or talk to a family, and realize, you know, in one case, newborn twins and their dad isn't coming home. Or in other cases where one service man that we are helping out now, his family, he was 46 years old and had been in the service almost his entire adult life. It was such a shock in the family. And it's not like, you know, in the service he's been in a posit1ion to build up any type of savings. So you get people left behind in very unfortunate circumstances. So they have all been very touching.

Q. As weird things are going on now with continued casualties in Iraq, does this fund cover indefinitely? We continue to lose soldiers pretty much every day now, though the war is declared over.

MARK CUBAN: The politics are what they are, but the reality is that service men continue to lose their lives. In all candor, after the original hostilities ended, we thought that there would be a finite number of families that we would be helping with the fund, but now that that's obviously not the case. That's one of the great values in working with NBC and American Century, because unfortunately we will be continuing to raise money or have to continue to raise money and we'll continue to help the families. So it's the unfortunate reality and we'll continue to help families as long as it is necessary.

Q. Can anybody make a donation to the organization's Web site?

MARK CUBAN: Correct, you can go to www.FallenPatriotFund.Org and make a donation directly through the Web site with a credit card, or you can go to a Bank of America branch, they should be set up to take contribution, as well. You can also use PayPal over the Internet, or there's also instructions if you'd just like to send a check.

Q. I was wondering who on your team is really helping out a lot?

MARK CUBAN: In terms of the Mavericks?

Q. Yeah, the Mavericks.

MARK CUBAN: A variety of guys have contributed and have done work with us. In addition Michael Finley has put together an event next week that will be raising funds for the Fallen Patriot Fund. Everybody has been very supportive across the board.

Q. I understand this during tournament week there's going to be a couple ancillary events to help raise additional dollars, and you might be making a trip out to that hoe, not to play in the tournament, per se, but to get involved with the fund-raising activities during the tournament; is that correct?

MARK CUBAN: Absolutely. We are going to come up with all kinds of little side bets to make things interesting to see if we can raise money for the fund. I'm going to be bouncing around and trying to extract money from as many people as possible. I can be very persuasive at times.

Q. Is there a particular figure you're trying to raise?

MARK CUBAN: Through this event, we are trying to raise $200,000. Hopefully we'll exceed that, but every dollar that comes in is money that's going to help families in need.

Q. Do you have any commitments toward that 200,000?

MARK CUBAN: I've committed $1 million in total across the board, plus all of the ancillary expenses.

Q. More than the $200,000 that you trying to raise during celebrity golf?

MARK CUBAN: We have not set specific numbers, but like I said, there's going to be all kinds of side bets. And as much as I'm going to be trying to wrangle money from people, you'd better believe -- I've already been informed I'm going to make a lot of matching commitments. I have not set matching commitments, but my checkbook will be ready.

Q. So what's going to be the line to Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley here?

MARK CUBAN: The line? I heard J-Kidd is 8 to 1.

Q. Are you a golfer?

MARK CUBAN: No. I make Chris -- if you saw last year, I make Chris Webber look like Tiger Woods. (Laughter.) I've learned. I'm the guy that throws the clubs and screams. So in trying to make this a positive event and trying to raise money instead of cause money; I'll just run the beer cart and be the caddie.

Q. How are the families determined that receive funding?

MARK CUBAN: We have a process where we go and verify their financial circumstances, both on an expense and on a revenue basis and incoming funding basis. And so what we do is we create a stipend that provides financial assistance for an annual -- for a one-year period, and then we review it each year, so that as people's circumstances improve, we want them to be able to really recover and get back on their feet. But if they have a setback, then we are there to help again.

MODERATOR: Our next guest is Jason Kidd, NBA superstar who was recently in the NBA Finals with the New Jersey Nets is right here with us.

Q. Can you tell us about your extensive golf experience growing up in Alameda and all of the local courses you've played, or is it the first time you've ever picked up sticks really?

JASON KIDD: In Alameda I used always play the public course in Alameda, and then Chabot Golf Course in Oakland and got a chance to play Olympic Club and different clubs in the City.

So this isn't the first time I've picked up clubs. Sometimes it might look like it, but no, this is a game that I love to play.

Q. Can you talk about Chicory Creek (ph) in Alameda?

JASON KIDD: Yeah.

Q. The local track there.

JASON KIDD: I played there once.

Q. And how's your game?

JASON KIDD: Getting better.

Q. I was just looking at the odds from Caesar's sports book, and you must be working on your game, because your odds have been reduced from 500 to 1 last year to 250 to 1 this year.

JASON KIDD: Big improvement. I'm in the next group.

Q. Well, you're way ahead of Barkley.

JASON KIDD: I left Charles and Chris Webber and those guys behind. I've come a long ways since the first time I played in that tournament. So there is hope. (Laughter.)

Maybe in the next four or five years I can get into the 75 to 1 range. I'm taking it year by year, but I'm going to celebrate now that I know I've moved up to the 250 range.

Q. Do you have any friends who are on TOUR, any guys that you've gotten to know that are actually on the PGA TOUR?

JASON KIDD: Well, I've been friends with Phil Mickelson, Billy Mayfair, Mark Calcavecchia.

Q. All of the Arizona guys?

JASON KIDD: Well, yeah, being in Phoenix, I got to play a lot of golf, and also ask for some tips from those guys. But, you know, those guys are wonderful, and they are sports fans, too, and love to play basketball. I got to know Phil pretty well. Jason Gore's caddie is my caddie in the celebrity tournament, who is just -- who just made it on the TOUR. So there are quite a few guys, Tiger, but the big thing is that I've been rooting for Phil so hopefully Phil can get one of these majors, but those are the guys that I know pretty well.

Q. How do you feel about the change to the Stableford system for scoring, and are you going to change your game in regards to your strategy?

JASON KIDD: I think it's great. I think it will probably be more -- everybody will be probably a little bit more aggressive. I think maybe it will be exciting. Some of us are professionals, so, you know, it won't change a lot of our games because we don't know but one way, and that's to be aggressive. The Del Greco's, the Rhodens, those guys might look at it a little bit differently because they are always at the top, in contention of winning. So bringing in a long shot, somebody who can get hot, make some birdies or an eagle, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's a great tournament anyway, no matter if they didn't keep score, it would be fun.

So I think the new rule changes are going to be great. If you get somebody who hits the ball long and you can get on the par 5s in two and can get some eagles, I think it will be exciting.

Q. Roughly, what's your handicap right now?

JASON KIDD: About a 10. It will keep going up if the weather continues to keep being bad here on the East Coast.

Q. Wondering how you are now going to spend the next six weeks or so, what it's going to be like for you, and being in a position to make a decision, where is your head right now?

JASON KIDD: Well, with my family, we've had two long seasons. So I want to relax and we're going to have a process here and hopefully it won't be long, hopefully have a decision made by the time I get to Tahoe because that will be one less thing on my mind. But if I don't I'll have something to blame it on if my golf game sinks.

Q. Do you play golf year-round?

JASON KIDD: I don't get a chance now, being in New Jersey, I don't get to play all year round. But I have a process to make and a decision to make and hopefully we can get it done quickly so I can concentrate on golf.

Q. Are you leaning in any direction right now already?

JASON KIDD: I'm not -- I would love to stay here but I'm not ruling anything out. So, you know, the Nets have the opportunity, I would say, for me to stay here, but I'm not going to rule out any other options.

Q. If you lose an assistant coach or two or three, will that have any impact?

JASON KIDD: The coaching staff isn't going to have any impact on my decision. It's going to be -- I want to be able to win a championship. And if I have to find the best place for that -- and that doesn't mean San Antonio or the Lakers, but if you have an opportunity here with the Nets, if I feel that we can win a championship, then hopefully that would be the decision I would make.

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