NBA signs off on Cuban's sale of Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks officially have a new owner as the NBA approved Mark Cuban’s sale of the franchise to Miriam Adelson and her family on Wednesday.

Adelson is a casino mogul and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, is the president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. He will serve as the Mavs’ governor. Cuban will still retain small shares of the club and continue to control basketball operations. Their deal is expected to close later this week, according to The Athletic.

Adelson inherited the wealth from her husband Sheldon after he passed away in 2021. He owned the Las Vegas Sands Corp until his death. He also built The Venetian and The Palazzo in Vegas. She is the largest shareholder of the company and the fifth wealthiest woman in the world. The Adelson’s are largely known for being some of the biggest financial backers of Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Some were shocked to see Cuban was pulling his claws out of the Mavericks, after being known as one of the most hands-on owners there are. Cuban seemed to always have the answers– through sexual assault allegations, harassment and whatever else was going on in that front office. Cuban essentially gutted the whole thing from the inside out in order to remove the disease and built it back up again.

And now he sold it to someone who has a track record of supporting someone who also has all of those same allegations.

Still, the deal makes the Mavs the second team Adelson and her family own. The other one is Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, and is owned by her son. Adelson also is the third woman to own an NBA franchise, joining Jeanie Buss of the Lakers and Gayle Benson of the Pelicans.