The Dallas Mavericks have been on a roller coaster journey in the 2024-25 NBA season. It all started when the management traded away the team’s best player, Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Fans felt betrayed and searched for someone to blame. Their target was former majority owner Mark Cuban. Like the fans, Cuban was thrown off guard by the decision to trade Doncic away.
Gavin Mulloy, an admirer, even went so far as to discuss the business tycoon in a Facebook post. It was eventually discovered that the original poster was a former employee of the organization, and Mulloy stated in his post: “Cuban should be run out of Dallas.”
Cuban defended himself by commenting on the post. According to him, he tried his best to make basketball the focus during his tenure as the majority owner. However, the investor is just a minority owner after he sold most of his stake in 2023. The Adelson and Dumont families ended up being the new majority owners of the team and Cuban’s role changed.
He used to be in charge of basketball operations. The general manager, Nico Harrison, has been trusted by the new ownership group to handle the majority of team-related decisions without seeking input from the very experienced Cuban.
Cuban revealed in the comments section that he still wanted to have control over the team. However, the league didn’t allow it to be included in the contract. This led the businessman to have a verbal agreement with the new owners.
“I fully expected to run basketball. The nba wouldn’t let me put it in the contract. They took it out,” Cuban wrote. “I thought [the Adelsons] would stick to their word because they didn’t know the first thing about running a team. Someone obviously changed their mind.”
NBA journalist blames Cuban for what has happened to the Dallas Mavericks
Cuban has drawn a lot of criticism in light of all that has transpired with the Dallas Mavericks. Journalist Bill Simmons was the most recent to criticize him. In the most recent installment of his program, “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” he highlighted the several mistakes made when Cuban held the majority stake.
From not signing Jalen Brunson to a contract extension, to selling the team to the Adelsons, Simmons believes Cuban is to blame.
““And now he’s trying to distance himself desperately from the Luka trade and he’ll do any interview and talk about how he can’t believe (it), and ‘oh my god I had no idea.’ It’s like, you did sell the team to these dudes. This is your fault. Just like it was Howard Schultz’s fault when he sold the Sonics to these f***ing dudes from Oklahoma City who were clearly going to move them,” Simmons ranted.
Cuban has not offered a response to what Simmons said about him and the Dallas Mavericks.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
