DALLAS -- Mark Cuban wants to give Donald Trump the chance to fire him.
The catch is, Trump has to hire him first.
Cuban on Monday challenged Trump to buy his services as a caddie
for the celebrity-amateur round of an upcoming celebrity golf
tournament. Trump already has agreed to play the event, which
benefits the Fallen Patriot Fund charity started by Cuban.
"Donald, if you're looking for a new apprentice, I might not be
that guy, but I'll be the caddie," Cuban said at a news conference
hyping the tournament. "Hopefully you'll accept the challenge."
It would be an interesting pairing of the billionaire
businessmen-turned-reality TV hosts, considering their recent spat.
They began taunting each other after Cuban announced his
upcoming show, "The Benefactor." It came during the peak of
Trump's show, "The Apprentice," prompting Trump to call it a
knockoff.
Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, fired back by vowing
his show will be radically different, adding that he's tried being
the anti-Trump ever since they met a few years ago. Trump responded
by saying he didn't remember meeting Cuban. Cuban then tweaked
Trump by offering a job to the runner-up from Trump's show.
The duo will go face-to-face one way or another during the
American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nev., from July 15-18.
Trump is among 82 celebrities ranging from actors to Olympians who
have agreed to play.
Cuban's bag-toting skills will be auctioned July 14, the night
before the celebrity-am event. He went for $25,000 last year, part
of the $325,000 the event raised. This year's goal is $375,000.
Cuban matched the total raised last year and will again this year.
"I'll challenge you, Donald Trump, to go out there and bid on
me to be your caddie," Cuban said. "Hopefully I'll have to write a
big check."
The Fallen Patriot Fund has donated more than $660,000 to 34
families of U.S. military personnel who were killed or seriously
wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Fund recipient Mark Graunke Jr. -- a Marine staff sergeant from
nearby Lewisville who lost his left eye, left hand, hearing in his
left ear and parts of his right leg and right hand to a bomb
explosion -- joined Cuban at the news conference and will be at the
golf tournament, too.
"I'm honored to be playing a role in raising funds for the
Fallen Patriot Fund so other military families can benefit the way
I did," Graunke said.