?Shark? Bait?

If Mark Cuban wants something badly enough, he gets it. Excluding an NBA championship, of course.

Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, won a bidding war earlier this month on the ABC reality series “Shark Tank.”

Whispers told you earlier about the episode that aired May 6 featuring Cabot firefighter Jeff Stroope and his invention, the HyConn, an adapter that connects hoses to fire hydrants in seconds.

The Bentonville company 101 Ventures, led by partners Matt Fifer, Jeff Clapper and Mike Cockrell, is one of Stroope’s partners.

Stroope created HyConn LLC with a goal of rapidly lowering the time it takes fire departments to provide water to a fire scene. There is also a garden hose attachment for household use.

Cuban and four other potential investors – the sharks – heard Stroope’s sales pitch and watched a demonstration.

Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, fashion designer Daymond John and technology titan Robert Herjavec all opted to pass on investing.

That left Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, who made millions through educational software, to make their offers and counteroffers for Stroope’s idea.

O’Leary’s interest was on the garden hose attachment, offering $500,000 for that and 5 percent of all profits.

Stroope, though, found Cuban’s last offer more enticing. For 11 years worth of work in developing the idea, he sold Cuban the entire company for $1.25 million. Stroope also gets a three-year contract at $100,000 per year “to run the show,” plus 7.5 percent of all ongoing royalties.

“In Arkansas,” Cuban noted, “$100,000 is going to go a long way.”