DALLAS (AP):

Mark Cuban sees a future of NBA ownership where the advantages will be in real estate.

The high-profile billionaire says that’s why he sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to a pair of families with strong ties to the hotel and casino industry.

The NBA yesterday approved Cuban’s sale of a controlling interest in the Mavericks to the Adelson and Dumont families, who run Las Vegas Sands Corp.

The deal was approved just shy of a month since Miriam Adelson and Sivan, and Patrick Dumont announced their intention to buy the club. The purchase is in the valuation range of $3.5 billion.

Patrick Dumont, Adelson’s son-in-law and president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, will serve as Mavericks governor. Adelson is the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

Cuban will be the alternate governor with a 27 per cent stake in the club and will maintain control of basketball operations. He made it clear there were no plans for the franchise to leave Dallas.

“The advantage is what you can build and where, and you need to have somebody who’s really, really good at that,” Cuban said. “Patrick and Miriam, they’re the best in the world at what they do. Literally, around the world.

“When you get a world-class partner who can come in and grow your revenue base, and you’re not dependent on things that you were in the past, that’s a huge win,” Cuban said.

Miriam Adelson is the controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., a publicly traded Las Vegas company that built the Venetian and Palazzo resorts but now only has casino operations in Macau and Singapore. Sheldon Adelson, the founder of Las Vegas Sands, died in 2021 at age 87.