Mark Cuban apologizes to Trayvon Martin family

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Thursday apologized to Trayvon Martin's family over his choice of words during an interview in which he addressed bigotry and prejudice, but Cuban says he stands by the "substance of the interview."

In the interview with Inc. magazine, Cuban says he believes everyone is prejudiced on some level.

"If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face - white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere - I'm walking back to the other side of the street. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of," Cuban said.

"Hoodies" became a symbol for protesters during the case of Trayvon Martin, a black teen from Florida who was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February 2012. Martin was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that night.

"In hindsight I should have used different examples. I didn't consider the Trayvon Martin family, and I apologize to them for that," Cuban tweeted. "Beyond apologizing to the Martin family, I stand by the words and substance of the interview. I think that helping people improve their lives, helping people engage with people they may fear or may not understand, and helping people realize that while we all may have our prejudices and bigotries we have to learn that it's an issue that we have to control, that it's part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it."

Cuban's comments come at a sensitive time for the NBA, which is still dealing with the fallout over Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist remarks. Cuban has blasted Sterling for his racist views but said kicking Sterling out of the NBA would be a "slippery slope."

Cuban has not revealed how he will vote on June 3, when NBA owners are scheduled to vote on a motion to force Sterling to sell the Clippers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.