Mark Cuban is Purposely Setting Fire to the Dallas Mavericks

The last year and a half for the Dallas Mavericks has been mired in drama and bad personnel moves, all of which can be traced back to when Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the team in late 2023 to Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont.

Cuban knew they weren't basketball people, and yet he didn't include any clause in the sale (in writing) to keep him in charge of any decision-making. He first said he was going to stay in charge, then said Dumont went back on his word, then said it couldn't be written in the contract of the sale (which is wrong), and finally accepted his fate. He may still own 27% of the team, but he's nothing more than a glorified fan now.

Then, the Luka Doncic trade happened. Former general manager Nico Harrison went behind everybody's back, keeping the trade between himself and Dumont, and Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka. At least, that's how it was reported initially. Cuban had no say in the trade and did not know about it until the trade was already official, but he still drew a lot of the anger from the fanbase.

Even if Cuban had no say, he still hired Nico Harrison in 2021 and still sold the team without getting it in writing that he could still have power in the basketball operations rooms.

Mark Cuban has never been shy, but it's been an odd few months for him in the media. A report came out via Marc Stein in early February that an unknown investor group was interested in partnering with Cuban to buy back a majority of the Mavs. Then, Cuban went on a podcast that was released this week and said Jason Kidd had a hand in trading Doncic, and that he regretted who he sold the team to. Coach Kidd has since come out and said that everyone needs to just "move on."

Even with all of that, Cuban has not bought himself any sympathy. In fact, some people are seeing through exactly what Cuban is doing.

Jun 27, 2025; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban (left) and Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont (right) looks on a press conference at the Dallas Mavericks Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Tim MacMahon Exposes Mark Cuban

On the latest episode of the "Hoop Collective" podcast, ESPN's Tim MacMahon seemed to know what Cuban is trying to do.

"He knows he's not buying the Mavs back. It's going to go the other way," MacMahon started. "Adelson and Dumont families can buy 20% more of Cuban shares, get them down to 7%, that's going to happen. Cuban's frustrated because he thought he was going to get back in at least the room in terms of you know basketball decision-making, and Dumont listened to him as far as like the lobbying to fire Nico Harrison, and there was a meeting where Cuban was in the room, and then Cuban realized, 'Damn I'm really not going to have any say. Like, they really don't want to hear what I have to say.' So Cuban's mad.

"This comes on the heels of the story that Marc Stein had... where it's like Cuban and this group of mystery investors are trying to put together a plan to buy back the Mavericks, and then Cuban shot that story down to the Dallas Morning News a couple of days later. And listen, I don't like getting into the business of guessing who one of our colleagues or one of our peers' sources are or what their sourcing is, but I can just tell you, people close to Patrick Dumont, the governor of the Mavericks, are pretty sure that Mark Cuban leaked the story in the first place. So it was put to me, they said, ‘Mark Cuban is one hell of an arsonist and a firefighter.’

Dallas Mavericks fans don't want Miriam Adelson or anyone in her family to own the team in any capacity. She is a mostly hated figure worldwide, and she does not care about the Mavericks whatsoever. However, people are starting to get tired of Cuban's antics. When the clause kicks in that allows Cuban's stake to be decreased by 20%, no one is going to be upset.

Mark Cuban put himself in this situation. He can try to turn the public against the current regime all he wants, but the public isn't dumb; they can hate the regime without his help. If anything, he's only hurting himself.

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