$40bn NBA owner makes decision on sale of franchise amid crushing blow to season
The Dallas Mavericks are not for sale.
Rumors circulated on Monday that stated an unidentified Dallas investment group are interested in partnering with former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to buy back majority control of the team.
The billionaire sold his majority stake in the NBA franchise at the end of 2023 for an estimated $3.5 billion to Patrick Dumont and Miriam Adelson, who are worth an estimated $40 billion in 2026.
Cuban retained a 27 percent share in the team, but stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the franchise, despite intending to stay on.
On Tuesday night, though, majority owner Dumont was in attendance courtside for the Mavs’ loss to the Phoenix Suns.
Some speculated that his rare appearance – at a road game especially – was a statement of intent that he was not going anywhere.
Then, on the following day, a source reportedly close to Dumont insisted that the team is not for sale.
“The Dumont and Adelson families remain fully committed to the Dallas Mavericks franchise and to the Dallas community,” the source said, according to longtime NBA insider and talkSPORT contributor Marc Stein.
“They remain focused on building a championship organization for the long term.
“The team is not for sale and the families look forward to expanding their ownership stake over time.”
Stein also revealed that the same anonymous source had told him 48 hours earlier that “the family remains excited about the future of the franchise and the Cooper Flagg era.”
According to Sports Illustrated, there was a clause in the initial purchase of the franchise that would see the Adelsons able to take more of Cuban’s ownership.
Should they choose to trigger that clause – with a deadline of December 2027 – Cuban’s stake in the organization would decrease to just 7 percent.
Cuban himself even admitted that he can’t see them selling.
“I get asked fairly often if I would be part of a group if they could buy the team,” he wrote to The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday.
“I tell them all the same thing: I don’t see them selling.”
Downward spiral in the Dumont and Adelson era
Under the Dumont and Adelson families, the Mavericks have seen mixed success.
The Mavericks stunned the league when, spearheaded by Luka Doncic, they reached the 2024 NBA Finals.
They would go on to lose the series in five games to the Boston Celtics.
Having shown that they had the personnel to go on a deep playoff run the following season, Dallas sent shockwaves around the NBA again when general manager Nico Harrison traded away franchise superstar Doncic in the middle of the night to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Since then, the franchise has seemingly been on a downward spiral, with their biggest asset in the return haul of Anthony Davis last just over a calendar year with the team.
The 10-time All-Star was traded at the 2025-26 deadline to the Washington Wizards, featuring just 29 times for the Texan outfit due to various injury ailments.
He averaged just 20.2 points from a career-low 49.2 percent shooting from the field, 10.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks during that span.
Although the Mavericks missed out on the playoffs after Kyrie Irving‘s campaign was cut short due to suffering a torn ACL, they ultimately secured the No. 1 pick for the 2025 NBA Draft, ultimately winning the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
Cooper Flagg goes down with injury
Drafting the Duke standout was perhaps the greatest decision Harrison made in his tenure as the Mavs GM before he was handed his marching orders back in November.
In 49 outings, the 19-year-old rookie has averaged 20.4 points shooting at a 48.2 percent clip, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals per contest, firmly establishing himself as the franchise piece for the Mavericks to rebuild around.
But on Wednesday, the Mavericks announced that Flagg had suffered a left midfoot sprain, confirmed by an MRI, in the 120-111 defeat to the Suns.
He was ultimately ruled out of the team’s road trip to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, and will not feature in the 2026 Castrol Rising Stars game on Friday.
His timeline to return is currently uncertain.
Entering the All-Star break, Flagg sits on 999 points scored, trailing only Charlotte Hornets star rookie Kon Knueppel (1,021 points).
They fall narrowly shy of of becoming just the fourth pair of rookies to each score 1,000 points before the All-Star break in the last 45 years.
The only others to do achieve such feat are Paolo Banchero and Benedict Mathurin (2022-23); LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony (2003-04) and Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon (1984-85).
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