Mark Cuban Regrets Not Opening Bidding War During Mavericks’ Sale

Former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban doesn’t regret his decision to sell a large portion of his stake in the team but wishes he’d have opened up the bidding 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 Patrick Dumont, her son-in-law and the team’s governor, but Dumont becoming the team governor wasn’t part of Cuban’s plan.

Mark Cuban Blames NBA For Losing Governor Title

Cuban kept a 27% stake in the Mavericks intentionally, as a part owner is required to hold at least a 15% stake to remain governor of an NBA franchise.

When the sale was made official, there was nothing to indicate Cuban would continue his role in running the team’s basketball operations, so he blames the league for losing his governor title.

“I did have it in writing,” Cuban said. “… Like I said before, 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 denied earlier this year that it was a league decision.

“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 in March, via Front Office Sports.

But Cuban reiterated during the podcast that the league was to blame.

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

Cuban Still Has Good Relationship With Adelsons, Dumont

When asked why he didn’t press harder to figure out why it was removed, Cuban figured it would have been a waste of time because there was nothing he could do to fix the problem.

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

Despite his quarrel with the league, Cuban says he 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 cannot be said about general manager Nico Harrison, who Cuban doesn’t stay in contact with. The Mavs executive made the controversial trade that sent 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 said. “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.”