In a surprise move, Mark Cuban — who bought a majority stake in the Mavericks from H. Ross Perot in 2000 for $285 million — is selling a majority of the Dallas Mavericks to casino magnate Miriam Adelson and the Adelson family, according to multiple reports.
The team is valued at $3.5 billion for the sale and Cuban would maintain a significant stake and control of basketball operations, a story broken by Marc Stein with Shams Charania of The Athletic adding details.
Sources: Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and casino tycoon Adelson family for valuation in range of $3.5 billion. In one of most unique setups in NBA history, Cuban keeps shares in team and full control of basketball operations. pic.twitter.com/9iTqZvoGX1
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 28, 2023
Cuban spoke last year of someday moving the Mavericks out of the American Airlines Arena near downtown Dallas into a Vegas-style resort and casino near Dallas (although casinos and sports betting are currently illegal in Texas). This sale appears to be a step in that direction, although no plans are currently on the table.
Cuban has been one of the most outspoken and public-facing NBA owners and that rattled the establishment back in 2000 when he bought the team. Cuban was seen as a brash, rebellious outsider but someone who turned the Mavericks around from a laughing stock of an organization into NBA champions in 2011. Over time what he brought as an owner — including treating the in-arena experience as pure entertainment with loud music and a constant stream of activities during breaks in play — has become the norm around the NBA.
The Adelson family fortune — estimated at more than $32 billion by Forbes — was built by Sheldon Adelson, who built and owned casinos around the globe such as The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands and attached convention center in Vegas, but he passed away in 2021. He was also a massive donor to Republican causes, something his wife Miriam has continued, she has been a major contributor to former president Donald Trump in 2016 and throughout his presidency.
Earlier on Tuesday, Miriam Adelson sold about $2 billion in company stock with the money expected to go toward purchasing a professional sports team, CNBC reported.
Any sale would have to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors (the other owners) but that tends to be more of a formality than a hurdle to most NBA sales.