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Mark Cuban wowed on ‘Shark Tank’ by affordable basketball machine. Here’s how it works

With the 2021 NBA postseason about to tip off, basketball has set up camp in the minds of sports lovers across the country.

But basketball is a 24/7 lifestyle ffor Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” investor Mark Cuban — and he proved it by putting money into a sports equipment company on the hit ABC show.

Cuban, along with businesswoman Barbara Corcoran, invested a combined $250,000 for 25 percent of GRIND, a company that makes portable basketball shooting machines that are more affordable than most on the market.

The company was founded by Thomas Fields, a 26-year-old Houston native who launched GRIND during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CNBC.

“It was literally two weeks before the pandemic hit,” Fields told CNBC. “After that, we were operating in a COVID world, so we don’t even know what that non-COVID world looks like.”

The machine, which sells for $1,595 on the GRIND website, automatically returns the ball back to a player and allows up to 1,000 shots an hour. It’s also portable, weighing about 100 pounds.

“I love the product,” Cuban told CNBC. “I ordered one while the show was being filmed.”

Some other basketball devices that are available on Amazon, like the SIBOASI Shooting Machine, cost almost $6,000 and weigh significantly more than Field’s brainchild. (The SIBOASI weighs 280 pounds).

GRIND currently has a deal with the San Antonio Spurs, who are using the machine at their youth camps, CNBC reported.

“We targeted the Spurs because they have the best and largest youth organization in the NBA,” Fields said. “It was strategic, and we didn’t partner with them because they were close by.”

Fields was a high school basketball player who got the idea for his device while recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury he suffered while setting up a shooting machine at a school gym, The Hustle reported.

“I asked myself, ‘Why can’t I bring my own machine?’” Fields told The Hustle. “Not long after, I started down the road to create the most affordable and portable basketball machine.”

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