Mark Cuban Regrets Not Creating Bidding War for Mavericks Sale

Mark Cuban wishes he’d opened up Mavs sale to bidding

Former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban doesn’t regret selling the team, but he’s not happy with how he handled the process.

“I don’t regret selling the team, I regret how I did it,” Cuban said during an appearance on the DLLS Mavs podcast. “Would I still sell the team? Yes, for all the same reasons I’ve said 100 times. Would I do it the same way? Absolutely not. I would have put it out to bid, but I didn’t so it doesn’t matter.”

The Mavericks are now primarily owned by Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont, who serves as the team’s governor. But having Dumont take over as governor wasn’t what Cuban had planned.

Cuban kept a 27% stake in the Mavericks on purpose. NBA rules require a part owner to hold at least 15% to remain governor of a franchise.

When the sale went through, there was nothing saying Cuban would keep running the team’s basketball operations. He points the finger directly at the NBA for losing his governor title.

“I did have it in writing,” Cuban explained. “There was a clause in there that gave me the right to be in every meeting, every trade discussion, everything, and the NBA took that out.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has denied this claim.

“Any decision as to what Mark’s role would be in basketball operations was a function of an arrangement to be made between Mark Cuban and Patrick,” Silver said back in March.

Cuban isn’t buying that explanation.

“Who the hell do you think took it out?” Cuban fired back during the podcast. “I’ve got a letter from my lawyer saying the NBA made us remove it.”

When asked why he didn’t fight harder over this issue, Cuban seemed resigned to the outcome.

“I don’t give a f – k at this point, it’s done. I signed the contract,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do at this point in time to change any of it, so what’s the point?”

Despite his frustrations with the league, Cuban says he still has a good relationship with Dumont.

“I still talk to [him] a fair amount,” Cuban said. “He does care. And he cares when we lose. He’s spending time to learn. He’s learn a ton in time. Now I can talk to him about analytics. I can talk to him about our roster.”

The same can’t be said about his relationship with general manager Nico Harrison. Cuban doesn’t stay in touch with Harrison, who made the controversial trade sending superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We all were hurt when Luka got traded – me as much as anyone, because I felt like I let people down by not being there,” Cuban admitted. “But what’s done is done. And we got Cooper [Flagg] – the basketball gods were looking down on us, and he’s the real deal.”

James Shotwell
James Shotwell
James, a dedicated writer for BasketballHour, holds a degree in English and Creative Writing. A genuine sports enthusiast and skilled betting advice provider, he writes engaging articles and valuable winning strategies for sports.

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