Tribute to a Cuban

Let me begin this post by stating that the only way I know Brian Cuban is through Digg.com. I've never seen him outside of Digg and no, I haven't been paid for this either. I simply wanted to pay homage to someone who I think is a very good writer, and who is one of my best friends on Digg, and oh yeah, he happens to be Mark Cuban's brother.

Now I know what you are thinking. It's pretty easy to suck up to someone who has the world by the tail. That's like a no-brainer right? Not so fast lizard breath. What started out as a Digg friend, quickly turned into alot of respect. Here's why. Brian is an attorney who works for his brother Mark. Brian shocked me and I'm pretty sure the entire internet world with this story. My Year in Alcoholics Anonymous Wow. Why would he do that? Not only that, I felt really amazed at his follow-up story, Why I Outed Myself In Alcoholics Anonymous He took some grief from members of AA for being so foward and "coming out" about his association in AA. I frankly saw alot of courage in Brian Cuban right then. He didn't have to do that. He could have kept that information locked way away. But he chose to openly write about it. I saw then that there was alot of courage to Brian. He's had my respect ever since that day.

When I first began chatting on Digg with him, I expected Brian to be someone distant. I'll admit I had some pre-conceived notions about him for which I will readily apologize for. How many attorneys do I talk to on a regular basis? Zero. How many attorneys do I talk to that are brothers to Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones, or some other high profile gazillionaire in Dallas? Less than minus 300. So when Brian and I started out talking, we would discuss Digg and how to digg stories. I really like Brian's articles as every one of them make me think about things. Let me just throw some numbers at you about Brian's Diggs:

7,314 Dugg
246 Comments
59 Submitted
14 Made Popular
24% Popular Ratio

To me, Brian is a very good writer. And apparantly, I'm not alone in that thinking. A 24% popular ratio is pretty stout. I'm sure that ratio will grow even larger if he stays with it.

I can truly say it's been a great experience getting to know Brian. He's just a courteous and friendly as anyone you will ever meet. He recognizes everyone has their opinions. He's really a good guy to know not for what he can do for me, but he really has a great ability to make me think about a given circumstance and the pros and cons of each situation. Maybe that's the attorney in him, but I really enjoy his writing.


The exciting news for Brian and the rest of us Diggers is that one of his stories called Why Athletes Go Broke was recently highlighted in the New York Times. I was really glad for Brian and it just goes to show if you write well enough, someone will see it.

I hope Brian and I are friends for a long time. But I sometimes wonder if someone will offer him a book deal soon and he won't have time to Digg any longer. I hope he eventually becomes a full-fledged writer. I think he would do very well at it. In the mean time Brian, can I get you to Digg this story?

UPDATED: Look at Brian go! Brian is scheduled to be on The Fox News Show our local news affiliate here in the DFW area. Time is 4:30 ET Sunday