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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reportedly was contacted by an anti-Trump group to run as a third-party candidate in this year's presidential election. Cuban told The Washington Post that a group of conservative politicians approached him to run in an attempt to block presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
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"I don't see it happening," Cuban wrote in an email to the newspaper on Saturday.
According to the Post, a band of Republicans -- including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney -- is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Trump from the White House.
Those Republican politicians believe that the outspoken billionaire NBA owner would resonate with voters, according to the newspaper.
Cuban, also a cast member on the ABC reality series "Shark Tank" in which entrepreneurs pitch investors about their business ideas, told the newspaper that his pursuers said his "bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis," could make him a winning candidate.
"(Trump) could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place," Cuban told the Post. "All that said, again, I don't see it happening. There isn't enough time."
The 57-year-old Cuban declined to identify the anti-Trump Republicans.
Cuban became the Mavericks' majority owner in 2000. The Mavs won their only NBA championship in 2011 and have missed the playoffs only twice in 17 seasons since Cuban bought the team.
"It would have been fun to run against Donald," Cuban said in an email to CNN Money.
"I think the time is right for a technology literate entrepreneur to run for president. Someone who has had to grind to achieve success and can relate as well to those that follow Bernie (Sanders) as those that think the system is broken and follow Trump. The issue for any such candidate is that the process is broken. It's a circus rather than a learning process for all involved."
