Recently, Cuban talked about a past story about Kobe Bryant on the "Run Your Race" podcast.

Cuban said: "I was on "Dancing with the Stars" at the time, and the producer of that show was a Kobe fan and a Lakers fan. He kept talking about Kobe, and I told him that we might trade for Kobe. At that time, Kobe was not satisfied with the Lakers. Pelinka, Jerry and I · Buss had talked about it, and Pelinka said that if Buss could be persuaded, Kobe would be willing to be traded. At that time, it was said that Josh Howard, Terry, and two first-round picks would be exchanged for Kobe. Even Dirk said that he would trade himself for Kobe. The transaction did not happen, but it was very close.”