It is a bet in my heart that I have to pay back, Masayoshi Son said before an audience gathered at the US Chamber of Commerce in March. I think America deserves the No. 1 position… because America is the best role model. You could almost hear America the Beautiful playing in the background while bald eagles majestically landed on Son’s shoulders, tears of patriotic pride running down their feathered faces. Just months into his ownership of America’s third-largest wireless company, Sprint, Son had to be feeling good about the stake he’d claimed.