Mark Cuban claims he purchased the Dallas Mavericks six weeks.

More than two decades ago, Mark Cuban had a life-changing epiphany at an NBA game.

When the tech billionaire was sitting a few rows back from the court at a Dallas Mavericks game in November 1999, at the start of the NBA's 1999-2000 season, he realized his wealth could transport him from the stands to the owner's box.

That's what Cuban recently told NBA All-Star, Chris Paul during an interview for the NBA All-Bloomberg Star's series "How I Got Here," The two men discussed how the billionaire came to purchase the Mavericks in 2000.

Cuban moved to Dallas in 1982 and began his tech career there, eventually becoming a billionaire and a die-hard Mavericks fan. According to Paul, Cuban decided to buy the Mavericks while sitting in the stands, watching a team that had flunked to make the playoff for nearly a decade and struggled to draw fans.

"My seats are right next to the Mavericks bench... "Two rows back," Cuban explains. "I was into it, and no one was there." And I recall thinking to myself, 'I can do a better job than this.' Then it struck me: 'Ding, ding, ding! 'I can finally afford this stuff!'"

That's a bit of an understatement. At the time, Cuban was a newly minted billionaire, having just sold his internet radio company, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in April 1999. When compared to the eventual sale price of the team - $285 million for a majority stake Cuban had more than enough money to buy the Mavericks.

Cuban believed the Mavericks needed to improve not only on the court but also in marketing the players to excite and grow the team's fan base. So he began putting out feelers to buy the team, getting in touch with the team's then-owner, real estate billionaire Ross Perot Jr., through mutual acquaintances. Negotiations moved quickly, and Cuban was named the team's new owner in January 2000.