There was once a time when Mark Cuban would call the shot for the Mavericks club, as he was the majority owner for over two decades. However, after selling most of his stakes two years ago, he simply had to sit by as last week the organization made one of their most historic decisions without him.
The billionaire had no say in the decision that exchanged Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis before the trade deadline, making their 25-year-old superstar a Lakers player. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Cuban “urged” Dallas general manager Nico Harrison not to go through with this trade.
“By the time Cuban found out about the Luka-for-AD trade, it was too late,” the reporter wrote recently. “[Patrick] Dumont never approached for advice. Sources say Cuban urged Harrison not to go ahead with the swap … only to find out that the deal had already been sealed with the Lakers by verbal handshake.”
Mark Cuban jokes with Bill Gates about the Mavericks trading Luka Doncic:
“If after you left the company, they traded Microsoft 11 for Microsoft 10… what would you do?” 💀
(via @persources) pic.twitter.com/CrCYdokSJL
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 8, 2025
After selling his 73% stake on November 2023, which he owned since 2000, he still thought he could still be a part of these kinds of decisions. According to Stein, not being taken into consideration for the team’s major resolution has hurt Mark, who still resents having lost Luka to Los Angeles.
“In truth he has clearly been stung, league sources say, by the lack of advance warning he had on the deal — yet another harsh signal that he has been pushed farther and farther away from the front office than he ever imagined after his very public belief at the time of the sale of the team in November 2023 that he would retain oversight of basketball operations,” the insider posted.
Stein then insisted that Cuban was “forbidden this season by the NBA to take his customary seat behind the Mavericks’ bench at road games.” The executive also told the reporter some months ago that “he did not have the say-so over basketball matters that he anticipated when the sale was agreed to with the Adelson and Dumont families.”
