Dallas Mavericks‘ minority owner Mark Cuban slammed the NBA in a recent interview with Marc Stein, revealing that the league has forcefully made him give up his permanent seat at home games behind the Mavericks bench. The former Mavericks Governor has deemed this petty on the NBA’s behalf.
“The NBA got really, really, really petty and said that I can’t sit behind the bench anymore.”
“The only time I feel any regret is when the NBA pisses me off, Maybe it would be different if we were losing and things weren’t going well, but things are going well. It’s nothing specific to the Mavs. I can’t go into NBA meetings anymore and give them —- for being petty.”
Even though Cuban retains minority ownership, he lost his seat as the team’s Governor to Patrick Dumont and is seeing his privileges slowly stripped away. Cuban owned the franchise for over 20 years until selling a majority share of the team last year to Las Vegas casino tycoon Miriam Adelson’s family in hopes of future-proofing the organization.
Cuban has made it clear that he doesn’t believe NBA teams can survive on purely media money for much longer, wanting the Mavericks to own a major real estate asset like the Warriors do with the Chase Center. Cuban is aware he doesn’t have the deep pockets or the know-how for a major real estate redevelopment.
The Adelson family has made their $34.1 billion fortune through hotels and casinos, showing that they are capable of fulfilling Cuban’s wishes of moving the Mavericks to a new arena that could serve as a resort/casino as well.
Texas has yet to legalize gambling, but the new owners are active political lobbyists and donors who hope to change the law eventually. Given the scale of the state, if gambling is legalized, the Mavericks likely would be among the first to establish a casino in a new arena that they can build from scratch.
Cuban shouldn’t regret his decision to sell the Mavericks because the minority stake he retained might be a lot more valuable if the new arena/casino can be built within the next few years. We are still years away from it, but Cuban made the decision to sell with the franchise’s best interests in mind.
The team isn’t afraid of paying the luxury tax anymore as they have to commit to building a title-winning franchise around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, with Irving expected to hit free agency next season.
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