Mark Cuban revisits his iconic brawl with NBA official 22 years later: "Everyone was freaking out"

In the early 2000s, the NBA witnessed Mark Cuban establish himself as one of the most involved franchise owners in the league. Among his notorious engagements with the team was a prank he orchestrated in 2003, and on the 22nd anniversary of his iconic April Fool's Day prank, Cuban reminisced how he had the arena freaking out temporarily with his performance.

The business mogul purchased a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in 2000 and had been a vocal presence who was unmissable at Mavs games, particularly during the early years of his ownership.

Chirping with opposition players and referees had become a routine for Cuban, so, because of his tenacity, his prank was believable when he decided to fight the referee during a game between the Mavericks and the Hornets in 2003.

"The crowd was the best. Everyone was freaking out." Cuban tweeted as he reposted his prank from 2003 on Tuesday.

The prank involved Cuban beefing with a hired referee impersonator and had the Mavericks head coach Del Harris, in particular, shocked. Del Harris biting the prank and realizing that it was staged is one of the best parts of the video footage shared by Cuban, celebrating the anniversary of arguably the most famous NBA prank ever.

Mark Cuban had previously spoken about the prank and how he "blew it" by laughing

While the crowd did appear stunned at the beginning, the more the owner and the referee got into it, the more it looked like an obvious prank. Cuban recalls laughing during the act and feeling like he blew the act after having the crowd gasping.

"We did it, and I remember thinking, I hope this doesn't crater. When I stood up and there was the first shove, I could hear the whole place gasp. Then we went at it and I could hear everybody going nuts. Then I started laughing and blew it," Cuban said, describing the prank to the Dallas Morning News.

An animated Mark Cuban watching on as the Mavericks played the Clippers in 2014 - Source: Getty

Cuban, while still an owner of the franchise, lost majority ownership of the Mavericks in 2023 and appears to have lost control over basketball decisions too. With the franchise suffering a rough couple of months under new ownership, Cuban seems to have joined the fans in reliving the good old days as their team struggles in a race for the last two play-in spots from the West.