DALLAS -- Mark Cuban says hes a follow-the-rules investor who checked with his broker to make sure that his 2004 sale of stock in an Internet company was legal. nfl jerseys china . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days. The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the owner of the Dallas Mavericks for insider trading, claiming that he broke a promise of confidentiality and traded on private information that gave him an advantage over other investors. A jury in federal district court is hearing the civil lawsuit, which doesnt involve criminal charges. The case may hinge on a single phone call between Cuban and the CEO of Mamma.com Inc., a search-engine company based in Canada. In recorded testimony played to jurors this week, CEO Guy Faure said he told Cuban about the planned stock issuance. Faure said that Cuban agreed at the outset that the information would be confidential. Cuban testified that he was upset to learn about the stock offering, which would dilute the shares of earlier investors like himself, but he denied ever agreeing to keep the information confidential. He said he couldnt recall details of the conversation. Executives of Mamma.com, a search-engine company based in Canada, believed that Cuban had promised not to trade until the stock offering was publicly announced. Cuban said he would never have made such an agreement. "Nobodys going to tell me" when to trade, he said. An email from his broker at UBS suggested that Cuban asked if his sale of Mamma.com stock was legal. "I dont like to do anything thats not 100 per cent kosher," he wrote. Cuban said he had reasons beyond the stock offering for selling his shares, including concern over ties between Mamma.com and a convicted stock swindler, Irving Kott. But SEC lead lawyer Jan Folena produced an email exchange from early 2004, before Cuban sold his stock, in which he appeared to dismiss another investors worries about Kott. Folena also produced an email in which Cuban directed a reporter for his sharesleuth.com website to dig up dirt on Faure and Mamma.com. Folena said that Cuban wanted to discredit Faures recollection of the critical 2004 phone call. Folena charged Cuban of cheating because he couldnt stand the idea of losing on an investment. "You look at every loss in your life as a huge failure," she said. "Absolutely not," Cuban answered. Folena then quoted from a business article that Cuban wrote in which he said he took every loss as a huge failure. Cuban was Mamma.coms biggest shareholder, owning a 6 per cent stake. The SEC says Cuban avoided $750,000 in losses by selling on insider information before the shares fell by nearly 10 per cent once the private stock offering was announced. The SEC wants Cuban to give up that money and pay a fine. As Cuban took the witness stand Thursday, he was relaxed -- smiling and making a few jokes. He smiled less often as he jousted throughout the day with Folena. In the afternoon, guided by one of his lawyers, Cuban told the jury his life story -- growing up in Pittsburgh; graduating from Indiana University; moving to Dallas and sharing an apartment with five other guys; starting his first company at 25; becoming a billionaire in 1999 when he and his business partner sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. Cuban looked directly at the jurors as he recounted buying the Mavericks. His wife no longer sits with him because he screams too much, and he misses some games to spend time with his three kids. "Im the luckiest guy in the world," he said of his wealth, which Forbes estimates at $2.5 billion. The jurors paid rapt attention; a few of them smiled. The trial will resume Monday. wholesale jerseys .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres are shuffling their roster by promoting forward Phil Varone from their AHL affiliate in Rochester. jerseys from china . Whether starting or coming off the bench, Johnson has always accepted his role in stride, part of whats made him the Raptors unsung hero for the better part of the last three seasons.I have always maintained that the hardest position to play in all of team sports is the quarterback position in football. It takes a quality of intelligence, athletic ability and a degree of mental toughness that very few possess. You have a dependence on others, yet you are the leader of others. At one moment you are the hunted, and the next moment you are the hunter looking for weakness and vulnerability. You are the conductor of the orchestra and must be sure of your performance or else everyone will be out of tune. Then there is timing. The timing of when that receiver, running back or coach waltzes into your professional life that makes the difference. For Anthony Calvillo that person was Marc Trestman. And for Trestman it was Calvillo. One thing you learn about football that is beneficial in life is the realization of your dependence on others. Every position is dependant on the quality of another to be successful. And each player in that position is dependant on other players in their position to excel. It is when you learn to accept that fact that you begin to really excel and produce. There is an amazing difference between using someone and working with someone for results. When you simply use someone, either party A or party B wind up losing in the end. When you work together both A and B win, and out of nowhere opportunity C arrives at tthe most unexpected moment. wholesale nfl jerseys. . Football has given me many gifts, like that of understanding how working together is more gratifying than working apart. If you have a goal of climbing the Mount Everest of life and when you reach the top its only you up there, thats not much of a party. Within moments you are now worried about journey down. If you were to ask Anthony Calvillo about the way in which he achieved so much success, I guarantee you he would defer credit to his offensive line, his receivers, his running backs, his coaches and so on and so on. And he is right. Because in football there is in reality no individual success, only collective success that is often identified by a key individual. It is why humility is such an important quality to possess: it is the truth. Am I taking anything away from Anthony Calvillos accomplishments? I do not believe so because I believe in interdependence. And as a player Anthony Calvillo is second to none and as a person he is second to none. He has that humility and therefore the strength to recognize accomplishment without recognizing individuality. I have always maintained that if extreme ability always went along with extreme humility then professional athletes, entertainers and public performers would be the best role models for kids available. Anthony Calvillo has that and is. cheap nfl jerseyscheap jerseys ' ' '
