Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is working on a deal to sell a majority stake in the NBA franchise to the family that operates the Las Vegas Sands Casino, a person familiar with the talks said Tuesday night.
The settlement would be worth $3.5 billion and would take weeks for the league to process, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details have not been released.
As part of the deal, Cuban would retain control of basketball operations. NBA reporter Marc Stein was first to report the possible sale.
The family of Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, announced Tuesday that it would sell $2 billion of its stock to buy an unspecified professional sports team.
Cuban said nearly a year ago he was interested in partnering with the Sands. He was a supporter of legalizing gambling in Texas, an issue that failed to make it past the state Legislature in a biennial session that ended earlier this year.
The 65-year-old Cuban, who just announced he was leaving the popular business TV show “Shark Tank” after a 16th season next year, quickly rose to fame after purchasing the Mavericks in 2000.
Dallas was one of the worst franchises in professional sports in the 1990s, but emerged as one of the best under Kuba, with a lot of help from star forward Dirk Nowitzki.
The Mavericks, who won the franchise’s only championship in 2011 with Nowitzki at the helm, are worth $4.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba