Cuban interested in
'Apprentice' runner-up

Mavericks owner said he'd hire
Kwame, who was fired by Trump

NBCSports.com news services

updated 4:35 p.m. ET April 28, 2004

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he might hire Kwame Jackson, who was "fired" by Donald Trump on the reality TV show "The Apprentice" on Thursday night, ESPN reported Friday.

The billionaire Cuban attended a party for Jackson on Thursday night after the Harvard Business School graduate lost to Bill Rancic, who will be paid $250,000 for one year for supervising the contruction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

"I told him I would definitely hire him to evaluate the business proposals I get every day that I can't get to," ESPN quoted Cuban as saying Friday. "And potentially run a business.

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"He knows that he was the lucky one by coming in second," Cuban said of Jackson, 29, a former Goldman Sachs investment manager. "Bill gets up and goes to work on a construction job. Kwame gets to be the celebrity, have a great time and look over all the options he has. I told him to take his time, have fun and decide what he wants to do. We can talk more and if he wants a job, I have one for him."

Cuban, who also owns HDNet, a high-definition television company, might have to compete for Jackson, who has been offered a $150,000 job from magazine publisher SYS-CON Media, ESPN said. Kentucky Fried Chicken also has offered Jackson $25,000 and a year's supply of KFC products for one week's work helping launch an oven-roasted chicken line, ESPN said.

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