Mark Cuban is no longer the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, as he sold his stake in the franchise for $3.5 billion in December 2023 to the Adelson and Dumont families.
Cuban intended to remain in charge of the team’s basketball operations despite not always drawing praise on the moves he’s made, but he’s seen his involvement lessen on that front as well.
“I’m not there making day-to-day decisions,” Cuban told NBA insider Marc Stein of The Stein Line. “That’s all Nico [Harrison, the Mavericks’ general manager]. That’s just the way it’s evolved. Honestly … is it exactly the way I expected it to be? No. But we’re winning and things are going well. I’m fine with it.”
To Cuban’s point, Harrison has helped improve the trajectory of the Mavs franchise since becoming GM in June 2021.
Harrison hired Jason Kidd as head coach and then executed trades for Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, and P.J. Washington. He also drafted Dereck Lively II.
Losing Jalen Brunson stung, but he acquired Irving for pennies on the dollar and developed the right culture to integrate the eight-time All-Star to make an improbable NBA Finals run a season ago.
Nobody can expect perfection from a GM, but Harrison has done about as good a job as you can do in a short span.
There are times Cuban misses being the majority owner, and times he doesn’t. Some of those times include making his voice heard at the league level.
“The only time I feel any regret is when the NBA pisses me off,” Cuban said. “Maybe it would be different if we were losing and things weren’t going well, but things are going well. It’s nothing specific to the Mavs. I can’t go into NBA meetings anymore and give them [expletive] for being petty.”
MORE MAVS NEWS: Mark Cuban brands NBA as ‘petty’ for limiting his involvement with the Mavericks
