In January 2000, Mark Cuban purchased a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. On Tuesday, Cuban agreed to sell a majority ownership in the team to the Adelson family for $3.5 billion, but the long-time owner will still keep a strong stake and full control of the Mavs.
Many have started to wonder what is next for the 65-year-old businessman, especially after news broke recently that he would be leaving ABC's Shark Tank after being a “shark” investor on the show since 2011.
On Wednesday, former Mavs forward Chandler Parsons, who spent nine seasons in the NBA, discussed this eyebrow-raising move Cuban and what this could mean for the future of the franchise.
“I talked to him [Cuban] yesterday and he wants to spend more time with his kids,” Parsons said on FanDuel's Run It Back. “He has a 14-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a 20-year-old. He's missed some time. They are going off to college and he feels like he needs to spend more time with them. He's going to be on Shark Tank through 2025, so it's not ending right now.”
Some have started to speculate that Cuban could be prepared to run for president in 2024, but the Mavs owner himself emailed NBC News claiming he has “no plans to run.”
The situation of selling a majority ownership stake and then still maintaining control of the team is somewhat surprising, as this is something that normally does not happen in professional sports with change in ownership. However, Cuban has always been very hands-on with his basketball team and is associated with the public image of the Mavericks organization.
Given all the success he's found as an owner and entrepreneur through the years, Mark Cuban simply decided that now was the best time for himself and his family to scale back on his workload.