Mark Cuban is working on a deal to sell a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to the Adelson family, who were major Trump supporters in 2016 and 2020 and run the Las Vegas Sands casino company.
According to reports from longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein and The Athletic's Shams Charania, Miriam Adelson—the widow of Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder Sheldon Adelson—is expected to purchase the Mavericks at a valuation in the "range of $3.5 billion."
On Tuesday, Adelson sold about $2 billion worth of stock in Sands.
Cuban, who bought the Mavericks from H. Ross Perot Jr. in 2000 for $285 million, would retain control of basketball operations in the deal. The sale would mean the Adelson family will acquire the majority of the franchise, as the Mavs were last valued by Forbes at about $4.5 billion.
Upon Sheldon’s death, Time called him a “GOP kingmaker.” A 2021 Politico piece said Miriam Adelson and Sheldon "formed the Republican Party’s most powerful donor couple for the last decade," wielding “unmatched influence in megadonor circles" and holding "the power to make or break Republican candidates."
The outlet added that in 2020, the Adelsons gave $91 million to Trump’s reelection effort, "making them Trump’s biggest financial backer." In 2018, Craig Holman of watchdog group Public Citizen told WNYC, "I would put [Sheldon] Adelson at the very top of the list of both access and influence in the Trump administration. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I’ve been studying money in politics for 40 years.”
Prior to Stein and Shams reporting on the Mavericks deal, the Adelson family announced plans to use the proceeds of the $2 billion stock sale to buy a "professional sports franchise."
“We have been advised by the Selling Stockholders that they currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, along with additional cash on hand, to fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchase agreement, subject to customary league approvals,” Las Vegas Sands said in the filing.
The news arrives a day after Cuban revealed he will leave MSNBC's Shark Tank after the series' 16th season, which is now airing.
