Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball
team, is selling a majority stake in the franchise to the family that runs the
Las Vegas Sands casino. The deal is worth around $3.5 billion and will take a
few weeks for the NBA to process.
Cuban will retain control of basketball operations.
The family of Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson,
announced earlier that they were selling $2 billion of her shares to buy a
professional sports team. Cuban has been interested in partnering with the
Sands for almost a year. He is a proponent of legalizing gambling in Texas, but
the issue did not pass the state legislature this year.
Cuban, 65, bought the Mavericks in 2000 and quickly
turned the team into one of the best in the NBA. He was helped by star forward
Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Mavericks to their first championship in 2011. The
Mavericks are currently worth an estimated $4.5 billion by Forbes magazine.
This is a big deal for the NBA, as it is the first
time that a majority stake in a team has been sold to a casino company. The NBA
has been opposed to sports gambling for many years, but it has recently started
to warm up to the idea. The league is currently considering allowing teams to
partner with casinos and sportsbooks.
The sale of the Mavericks is also a big deal for
Cuban, who has been a vocal critic of the NBA in recent years. He has been
critical of the league's officiating and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite his criticisms, Cuban is a respected figure in the NBA and is known for
his willingness to take risks.
It will be interesting to see how the sale of the
Mavericks affects the NBA and Cuban's relationship with the league.
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