In an appearance on the Intersections podcast (Instagram video link), former Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban said he doesn’t regret selling the team in December 2023 — but he does regret the buyers he chose, as Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News relays.
“I don’t regret selling. I regret who I sold to,” Cuban said in a teaser clip released Monday. “I made a lot of mistakes in the process, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Cuban sold the majority of his shares in the team to Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Las Vegas Sands CEO Patrick Dumont. Dumont has been the Mavericks’ governor since the sale was completed.
Cuban, who still controls a 27% stake in the Mavs, said when the sale was announced that he would still be the team’s top basketball decision-maker, but it turned out he had no contractual grounds for that role.
As Christian Clark of The Athletic notes, it was evident in February 2025 that Cuban’s influence in the organization had waned considerably when Dumont signed off on the decision to trade Luka Doncic. Former general manager Nico Harrison, who was hired by Cuban and was dismissed by Dumont in November, reportedly led those negotiations.
Cuban still attends the majority of Dallas’ home games, according to Clark. The Mavericks are currently 24-50, the sixth-worst record in the NBA.
Cuban told hosts Tom Leppert and Kyle Waldrep he sold the Mavs because “it’s a big emotional commitment” and he didn’t want his children to be involved with the team.
“You hear the passion and everything,” Cuban said. “Now imagine going up and down like that every single game. That’s hard.
“… My kids, they were coming of age where they would be of the mindset (that) maybe they want to work at the Mavs, and I didn’t want that for them. … If fans don’t like what you’re doing or the team’s not doing well, you’re the worst human being on the planet, and they treat you that way.”
Miriam Aselson is a straight up SCUMBAG. Jussayin.
I coulda told Cuban that the Adelsons were terrible folks! And that woulda been just a google search smh! Seems weird he couldn’t foresee how crappy they’d be
He had to have known.
Dude has been on ABC since 2009. He knows very well who the Adelsons are and what they’re about. As with most people who deal with them, the money outweighed personal integrity
Adelsons seem to be doing the UAE thing of trying to wash their reputation through sports, but they already screwed that up lol
For a guy who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, he seems to do allot of dump stuff.
you mean like misspelling dumb.
Typo, but thanks for the call, your doing great
I believe you mean “you’re” vs your. You’ll get there, buddy!!
Another one, I’m on my phone doing this but you got me. Good job.
There’s a thing called backspace. I’m guessing most of us do this from our phones.
You clearly understood what he was saying so your post only makes you look insufferable. Congrats.
Losing in a moron-idiot-scum-off to Adelson is insane
Are there any billionaires who aren’t total morons? Cuban just falling over himself here…so why should we listen to anything he ever says? Billionaires are such a waste of all our time on Earth.
Buy it back. Let him buy the Vegas team …..
There👏 solved
l think the nba will allow the adelsons to move the mavs to vegas. l think that was the plan all along along with them getting the first pick in the draft so luka would go to la. the nba is entertainment not pure sport.DIG IT!.
There is no way the nba would leave the Dallas market for Vegas. They have been one of the more consistently competitive teams over the last two decades, have a loyal fan base, and are in a far superior media market.
No te creo Man
It is the business of sport. I can see him getting the Mavs back. The name and History. Not a vegas guy or gambling. But I get it
They could trade franchises. It’s been done before, and in the NBA to boot. Buffalo Braves (became the Clippers eventually) were traded for the Boston Celtics. It was a long time ago, but still.
Adelsons could get the expansion team in Vegas, Cuban can buy back his Mavs by paying the Vegas expansion fee.
@rct
I was thinking a very similar idea! Dum/Adelsons fit better as owners in Vegas, maybe just to put butts in seats, like through casino giveaways/promotions etc; and I would seriously question the NBA’s judgement if they abandoned Dallas which is the second biggest media market in Texas right?, to transplant the Mavs to Vegas. And isn’t Dallas so obviously a sports town, can’t see the Mavs leaving Dallas for LV lol
Adelsons also have ties to Las Vegas. It makes too much sense, if Cuban is really serious about re-acquiring the Mavs. You never know, though, because Cuban loves hearing himself talk.
Guy has more money than he can spend in a thousand years but still sold his prized possession in order to have more money he can never spend.
I don’t really believe him, I think he’s just annoyed he looks bad now and wants to save face.
Does he look bad? If anything, I think the state of the Mavs since he sold makes him look better as a previous owner and basketball decision maker. I think he looks silly for selling it to them, but I’d personally stop there because these morons have ran the team into the ground.
He looks bad only because he won’t shut up about any of this. He sold the team. Move on.
Yeah that’s what I meant, he looks bad for selling it to them. It clearly bothers him.
Cuban is an objectively better owner than these clowns, but his pissing and moaning since selling the Mavs is getting old. Maybe he shouldn’t have sold? Just a thought.
Cuban is so full of it.
Why don’t you just liquidate your 27% and go fan boy for another team? If you cared about what happened to the team then you’d still own it. But you wanted that money and now you want to save face. Can’t have both dumbass.
I love how Cuban is narcissistic enough to not even consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, his kids wanted to own the team despite knowing all of that. Way to eliminate that choice and to signal you have zero faith in them to make the best decision for themselves.
What’s next, telling them they aren’t allowed to major in specific fields? Deciding who they’re allow to date or marry?
It is all so much rationalizing and making excuses. He knew a good deal when he saw it, so he took the money. But he didn’t reckon with the fallout of that decision.
degree in psychology?
Sell off your share and buy the Angels.
I wonder if he’s more upset about the Luka trade or Adelson pushing the US into a war with Iran. $250 million in campaign contributions and $3.5 billion for a basketball team doesn’t buy you the goodwill it used to. Who could’ve guessed the billionaire casino owners would be so ruthless.
I truly believe the Donic trade was orchestrated by the NBA. They told the new owners not only will they get Flagg but their buddies will get casinos in Texas.
cool story bro
Isn’t it more likely that Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont got absolutely fleeced while Cuban was out tending to his next venture, or filming Shark Tank maybe?!? Harrison will forever be a punchline and I kinda feel bad for him tbh, but that makes more sense to me than some kind of clandestine agreement among the entire NBA ownership group
The reality is he can probably just be the majority owner of the Vegas team and then just do a swap lol. Win win for both parties.
Cuban only regrets selling the Mavs at a $3.5b valuation before the Lakers pushed teams up to $10.0b.
Teams are not worth 10 billion. The NBA trying to capitalize on the sale of the 2 most valuable/historic teams isn’t working. Expansion teams are looking like about 5 billion right now which may not be enough to entice owners of fringe franchises. These guys who are permanently stuck in play-in territory will hate the idea. The guys who are contenders and the super suckers will be happy to take the pay day. Seems more up in the air than originally expected.