HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban took a victory lap around the spin room Monday night ahead of the first presidential debate, gleeful that he'd managed to bait Donald Trump so easily.

"I knew that it would get under his skin and drive him crazy. Mission accomplished," Cuban said.

"I'm not here to cause a scene," he added, surrounded on all sides by journalists — except behind him. Secret Service agents blocked their way as they made a protective shield around Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, who was doing a TV interview nearby.

"I'm not here to jump up and down. Donald will do that on his own," Cuban said. "He didn't need any help from anybody else. He's kind of a big boy, you know, sometimes, and he'll say what he's going to say. I'm not here to cause a scene. I'm not here to make faces. I'm not here to stare him in the eyes. I haven't practiced the stink eye. I don't have a little dance move. I'm not going to do anything like that. He's good enough at that on his own."

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Cuban has trolled Trump mercilessly during the campaign, using his own 5 million strong Twitter following — impressive, though only about half the size of Trump's — to taunt his fellow billionaire. His announcement last week that he'll sit in the front row at the debate, courtesy of the Clinton campaign, provoked a threat by Trump to bring Gennifer Flowers, a woman who'd claimed to have had a long affair with Bill Clinton.

Trump aides ended up tamping that down, and Flowers is apparently not coming after all. Cuban said the reaction itself was his reward.

As for the debate, he said: "I don't have any expectations whatsoever. ... This is a historic event. I believe very strongly that the future of our world is at stake."

And he said he's concerned that Trump is so volatile that as president, he'd be dangerous.

"I'm afraid that Donald Trump who says something offensive and doesn't know it's offensive will offend somebody and cause something really bad in this world," he said.

Cuban said he'd hoped to bring his 13-year-old daughter to the debate but since his twitter battle with Trump, he's been getting death threats and fending off hackers, he said, adding, "I don't blame that on Donald."