What we know — and don't know — about Mark Cuban's sale of Mavs' majority stake (2024)

The end of the Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban era, one of the most influential and memorable tenures in sports since it began in 2000, has been approved.

On Wednesday, the NBA’s other 29 owners voted unanimously to authorize Cuban’s sale of the franchise to the families who run the Las Vegas Sands corporation, led by Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont.

“We look forward to working in partnership with Mark Cuban as stewards of this great franchise and bringing another NBA championship to the city of Dallas,” Dumont said in a statement. “We are committed to the long-term success of the Mavericks and delivering a world-class hospitality experience for our fans, players, employees, sponsors and partners.”

Here is a summary of what we know, what it means and what questions remain.

What do we know about the sale?

Cuban sold the Mavericks for a price in excess of $4 billion, which includes the franchise and its assets such as buildings and land. That figure is the team’s valuation, and it determines the amount the Adelson family paid to purchase the controlling stake in the team. News first broke of the sale after the Sands corporation announced in November that Adelson, its top shareholder, was selling $2 billion in stock to purchase a professional sports franchise.

Dumont will serve as the Mavericks’ governor, but Cuban, who retains 27 percent of the franchise, believes his presence and basketball impact will look similar to the one he has now. While he concedes there is “no contractual language” guaranteeing this, Cuban says he will continue overseeing the franchise’s basketball operations.

How will Cuban’s continued role in basketball operations work?

After an on-court shooting session before Wednesday’s home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cuban spoke to reporters and described his continued role with the franchise as a “partnership.”

“It’s not like I have a contract and a job and I get a salary,” he said.

As the team’s governor, Dumont will have the final say in decisions, but Cuban emphasized his learned basketball acumen from his 23 years as owner.

“They’re not basketball people,” he said. “I’m not real estate people.”

Cuban referenced “middle-class billionaires,” saying the franchises that have spent heavily in the past decade have majority shareholders who are even wealthier than him and his $4 billion estimated net worth. Forbes estimates Adelson’s net worth at $33 billion.

“They basically said, ‘Do what you gotta do, I want to win,’” Cuban said.

While Dallas paid the luxury tax in Cuban’s first nine seasons in charge, the team has only paid it once since then. (That one exception came last season.) Since Nico Harrison’s hiring as general manager in 2021, Cuban, while remaining actively involved, has had a lighter influence over decisions than in the past, according to team sources granted anonymity so they could speak freely.

By ceding majority ownership of the franchise, Cuban cannot guarantee his role running the team. But he said he believes, in the event of a future disagreement between himself and Dumont over the team’s direction, that they “would work it out.”

Why did Cuban decide to sell now?

Cuban’s image, one where he posits himself as an approachable billionaire who’s just like you in every way but his bank account, has always been tied deeply to the Mavericks and his public-facing fandom. In 2016, Cuban said he would never sell the team.

“I’m turning down anything,” he told Bill Simmons when appearing on his podcast. “What do I need $3 billion for?”

When reminded of that statement Wednesday, Cuban merely said, “Things change.” He said it was the right decision for the Mavericks and unrelated to his near-simultaneous decision to leave ABC’s “Shark Tank” after this coming season.

Cuban also described himself as someone not adept in what he considers the NBA’s future financial direction. “I wanted to be the tech guy,” he said. “I raised hell on technology.” But as streaming services have replaced cable television, and, in turn, local broadcast rights, the league is quickly moving toward alternate revenue streams. (The NBA’s current media-rights deal expires after the 2024-25 season.)

Beyond that, we don’t know for certain why Cuban decided now was the right time. Multiple team sources say they have no reason to believe Cuban’s decision to sell his majority stake in the Mavericks is a precursor to a time-consuming political endeavor such as a presidential run, something with which he has long flirted.

Whatever the reasons, Cuban certainly has more financial liquidity than before.

“Nothing’s really changed except my bank account,” he said.

Why is Cuban selling to the Adelson family?

Cuban was incentivized to sell to the Adelson family, as opposed to another potential buyer, because they would allow him to remain involved in basketball operations.

“I could’ve gotten more money selling it to somebody else,” Cuban said.

One of the many ways Cuban has influenced the NBA — and North American sports in general — is that he normalized the concept of a public-facing governor actively involved in their franchise. Another buyer, one willing to pay more in an open bidding process, might have been someone looking to follow in Cuban’s footsteps without his continued involvement.

Who is Miriam Adelson and what is the Las Vegas Sands Corporation?

Adelson, whom Forbes calls the 45th richest person in the world, is the widow to Sheldon Adelson, who built his wealth as a casino tycoon — first in Las Vegas and later in Asia — before his death in 2021.

From The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov:

The Adelsons were among the most prominent Republican donors for years and were high-profile supporters of Israel and Jewish causes in the United States. They were significant donors to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. Birthright Israel, a group that sponsors trips for people of Jewish heritage to Israel, said the Adelsons had contributed nearly $500 million over 15 years before reducing funding last year.

Miriam took control of Las Vegas Sands Corp., after Sheldon’s death; Adelson and a family trust in her name own 57 percent of the company according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

While the Sands corporation no longer operates any North American-based casinos after selling The Venetian Las Vegas in 2022, the business conglomerate operates several resort casinos in Singapore and Macau. Adelson’s portfolio also includes two newspapers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Israel Hayom. Her son, Matan, purchased the Israeli-based basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem this summer.

“The state of Texas has always been friendly to our family, and we look forward to being able to repay that kindness. I am excited to spend time cheering on the team and getting to meet members of its passionate fan base,” Miriam Adelson said in a statement. “Everywhere we have a business presence, our top priority has been to empower our team members and engage with the local community in a meaningful way. I very much look forward to bringing that same commitment to Dallas and the greater DFW area.”

Dumont, along with his wife, Sivan, is the other family member involved in the purchase. The team’s new governor is Adelson’s son-in-law and president and chief operating officer of the Sands corporation.

“They’re good people, they’re committed to Dallas, they’re committed to winning, they’ve got great hearts,” Cuban said. “I’ve known them forever.”

Will Adelson and the Dumonts be visible at Mavericks games?

Cuban said the Dumonts will likely attend a Dallas home game in January, but it’s unlikely Adelson will join them. Cuban, who said he will serve as the team’s alternate governor while he remains a minority owner, will remain a visible presence with his typical courtside seat next to the team’s bench.

Is there any chance the Mavericks are moved to Las Vegas?

No.

Las Vegas is seen as one of the NBA’s two likeliest expansion cities, along with Seattle, something which seems likely to happen this decade. But the NBA wants to create a new franchise in Las Vegas — and net the hefty expansion fee that would come with that — not move an existing one there. And it certainly doesn’t want to move an established franchise located in the country’s fifth-largest media market.

Why is the Adelson family buying the Mavericks?

Both Cuban and the Adelson family have been transparent about their mutual interest in legalizing sports gambling in Texas. Cuban believes it is the revenue stream that will replace broadcast television rights, saying, “It’s another base of revenue that wasn’t there.”

In late 2022, Cuban first mentioned the Sands corporation as a potential partner for his vision of an arena built within a destination resort casino in Dallas. Several team sources say the two parties had been engaged in serious conversations about the team’s sale since early 2023.

“It was two, three years ago I started talking about a casino and a destination resort,” Cuban said. “I told you guys then, I wasn’t going to be the one to build it. It makes sense that (if) someone is going to come in as a partner and invest potentially billions of dollars, they’re going to want equity.”

Perhaps it’s cynical to compress the Adelson family’s purchasing interest in the Mavericks to this cause alone. Undeniably, though, legalizing gambling in Texas is an interest of the Sands company that Adelson and the Dumonts represent.

“Look closer, and you’ll find that Israelis and Texans have a deep affinity,” Adelson said earlier this month in an address to the Texas Association of Business, the state’s largest business lobby. “It runs deeper than business, though commercial ties between Texas and Israel are truly booming. And it even runs deeper than basketball, though my family are huge fans of the Dallas Mavericks.”

Through a political action committee called Texas Sands, Adelson has spent more than $2 million since 2020 to fund state legislators and hire lobbyists within the state’s long-entrenched Republican government. Adelson also donated $1 million to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s re-election campaign last year.

What’s the when and where of the proposed arena?

The Mavericks’ lease at the American Airlines Center, its current home in the Victory Park neighborhood near downtown Dallas, expires on July 28, 2031. But the potential process of rehoming the team, of course, would need to begin long before that.

Cuban said the proposed arena — that is, the resort-casino idea that would include the basketball venue — would be built within the city limits of Dallas. The Adelsons, who would be behind such a massive development, have not made any such guarantee.

Earlier in December, D Magazine’s Tim Rogers reported that the plot once holding Texas Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys’ former home in the Dallas suburb of Irving, was purchased by an entity named Village Walk RE 2 LLC, which has a taxpayer number that shares a mailing address with the Sands corporation.

What would it take for legalized sports gambling in Texas?

In May, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that would legalize online sports betting but postponed a vote that would allow casinos after it became clear it lacked enough support to reach a two-thirds majority.

But the Texas Senate declined to consider the online-betting bill that did pass, and legislative experts say both would face uphill odds if they were put to a Senate vote. It would also require a statewide voter-approved constitutional amendment.

The push to legalize gambling in Texas not only has the monetary backing of the Adelson family and the Sands corporation, but that of another owner of a Texas-based NBA team: Houston Rockets’ governor Tilman Fertitta. While Fertitta’s businesses own casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi and Louisiana, his local efforts to legalize gambling in Texas have failed.

Cuban said he would be “as active as (he) needs to be” to assist measures that would lead to legal gambling, saying, ​​”I think it’s the right thing for the state of Texas.”

“Could you imagine building the Venetian in Dallas, Texas?” he said. “That would change everything. Having someone like U2 or whoever, a big band or act, as a residence? That’s insane.”

For now, however, sports gambling remains illegal in Texas for the foreseeable future.

— The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov contributed.

(Photo of Mark Cuban: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)