𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞 𝗖𝗨𝗕𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡 𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗘𝗧 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗦

As the Mavericks inch toward their first full season without the iconic former owner in charge, a reflection on how the most bombastic sports presence in town departed in the least expected way: without fanfare.

By Jake Kemp | July 15, 2024

Mark Cuban

To me, there are few instances in our modern media landscape where a story unfolds and feels as if it doesn’t receive enough coverage. We exist in a time where talking heads turn the smallest occurrences in sports, politics, anything, into something akin to an international crisis. Obviously, the Cowboys are the fuel that ignites this take to a degree that no one can match. 

But for many years, the aura around former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t lag too far behind. Not just locally, but nationally. Shark Tank. Television battles with Skip Bayless. The Dairy Queen stunt. His constant presence in his seat on the baseline at home games; his presence behind the bench at many road games. His full-frontal assault on the league’s lackluster officiating standards, leading to millions of dollars lost in fines. 

As a kid, I wasn’t really that interested in the Mavericks. They were the laughingstock of the sports world, and the Seattle SuperSonics had a player I shared a last name with who dunked a lot. It wasn’t really until Cuban bought the team in 2000 that I fell in love with them. I know that makes me a frontrunner, but I was a kid. And kids don’t root for teams that suck. But Cuban brought not just a turnaround, but also energy and a new style of ownership that was so engaging. He was a Maverick.

And now, in the span of half a year, he is not only no longer the majority governor of the team, but he is also no longer the leading voice in basketball operations. It’s impossible to tell the story of the last quarter century of Dallas sports without Cuban’s name being in the first sentence. And now he’s just gone. For someone who has lived so loudly, this seems to have happened quietly. 

There has been a growing sense of frustration in the fan base since the 2011 championship team was disbanded in the face of a lockout. That was quelled a bit by the drafting of Luka Doncic and the almost immediate return to relevancy. But even then, the swings and misses in free agency and the draft grew to weigh on the public, with Cuban taking much of the blame. Interestingly, head of basketball operations Nico Harrison has grown into his job masterfully, and Cuban hired him.

I see a lot of chatter about how much better, how much smoother things have gone under Harrison. But again, Cuban did hire him. And that was a bold hire, to bring on someone who had no experience in an NBA front office. He hired Michael Finley to be Harrison’s top lieutenant. That also appears to be going swell. So we find ourselves in this strange position where the decisions Cuban made before relinquishing control have set the team up for success.

Again, though, it’s just odd that his diminished role isn’t a bigger deal. Perhaps it’s that it happened in phases, with the first move being selling off shares to the Adelson family, and later the handing over of decision-making. But even that doesn’t really make sense. Cuban built this franchise into what it is. He may have been filming a reality show during the Deron Williams free agency pitch. He may have made some missteps in roster construction. He was the owner during a huge scandal involving workplace improprieties. This is all true. But the thing is, those were all massive stories. For whatever reason, his receding from being the figurehead of the franchise hasn’t been. 

Cuban has said that his reason for offloading the majority of his stake in the franchise was a financial one, a transaction that would ultimately grow the value of his remaining shares based on the Adelsons’ connection to casinos. That’s all well and good; I don’t understand finances, but if he says that’s why he did it, I’ll take him at his word. What I can’t make sense of is why there was such a staunch public position of retaining control of basketball operations, only to reverse course in short order.

All I can surmise is that Cuban realized he had lost touch with how to be the person in control of a modern NBA franchise. He was the most passionate, involved owner in the NBA for nearly 25 years. He’s also a brilliant person. It’s hard for me to believe he just lost that passion. Watch him during the highlight of the year. That is not a man who no longer loves the thing that he has worked so hard to create. So perhaps it’s just a case of “if you love something, let it go.” 

I don’t have an explanation for why this isn’t a much bigger story. Maybe it’s that the Mavericks have had phenomenal success in two of the last three seasons, and the masses are satisfied with the product. Maybe in the end that’s all people really care about, rather than the billionaires in charge. But for so long, Cuban was the guy. He was the guy who ushered in the Dirk Nowtizki era by retaining and empowering the outside-the-box hire that was Don Nelson. Dirk doesn’t become Dirk without Nellie, and Nellie doesn’t keep his job if not for Cuban. 

For all of the valid criticisms, Cuban changed the NBA. His approach to analytics and advanced stats was ahead of its time. The Playstations in the lockers didn’t land the Mavericks any huge free agents. But his embrace of treating players as more than just worker bees is seen across the league now. He changed the way the game was played. He changed the way the game is officiated. 

And now, his role in this league, and with this team, appears to be to simply watch his shares grow in value as part of a portfolio just like all of the deals made on Shark Tank. There is also the matter that Cuban felt like a man, unlike most billionaires, who had politics and social views that aligned with the modern athlete. I don’t know how much that mattered; perhaps it didn’t at all. But he sold his team to some of the biggest conservative donors on the planet. Again, maybe this matters none at all. It does, however, highlight the stark contrast between the previous era and the current one. 

This is a different team and a different organization. Any departure from Cuban was going to be jarring, given his public largesse. This, though, is about the biggest left turn I can recall in sports. And for some reason, it isn’t being treated as such.