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Mark Cuban’s Evil Twin Destroys Boca Team

Dan Borislow torpedoed his own women’s soccer club

by
Marc Tracy
October 28, 2011
Borislow on his Batmobile-style motorcycle.(Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post)
Borislow on his Batmobile-style motorcycle.(Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post)

It’s all in this excellent Deadspin exposé: how Dan Borislow—a tech entrepreneur multimillionaire whose charity has donated nearly $3 million to two yeshivas—purchased the Washington Freedom of the Women’s Professional Soccer league, moved them down to Boca, and renamed them the magicJack (the name of his voice-over-Internet Protocol business); how he did absolutely nothing in the way of promotion (I’d link you to the team’s Website, but it doesn’t have one), despite having several of the leagues’ most popular and marketable stars like national team standouts Abby Wambach and and Hope Solo; how he fired the coach after a 3-0 start and made the players coaches; how the players’ union banned him from the field; and how, finally, less than a year after all this ridiculousness began, on Wednesday the WPS announced it was putting the magicJack out of its misery.

Deadspin’s Emma Carmichael is dead-on in comparing Borislow to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, another brilliant (Jewish) tech entrepreneur who bought a sports franchise. The difference is that Cuban purchased the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks because he actually cares, not because it’s just another toy to go along with his Batmobile-style motorcycle. “There’s two things I like to do, and I don’t know which one I like to do more,” Borislow told The Palm Beach Post recently. “One is make money. And the other one is spend money.” Cuban’s two things would be “make money” and “win.” In June, when the Mavs won their first ever NBA championship, Cuban got what he deserved. Now let’s hope Borislow gets what he deserves.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.