Former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban says the culture inside NBA ownership circles changed dramatically during his more than two decades in the league, shifting from passionate basketball voices to a more business-driven environment.
Speaking on Front Office Sports, Cuban reflected on his early years after purchasing the Mavericks in 2000 and contrasted that experience with the ownership landscape he saw before selling his majority stake at the end of 2023.
“Yeah, it’s totally different,” Cuban said. “I remember when I came in and I was the young guy and all of the old school owners just hated my ass.”
Cuban described tense league meetings during the beginning of his ownership tenure, recalling an interaction with a former Detroit Pistons owner after he had already been fined multiple times during his first months around the NBA.
“There was one guy — the guy who owned the Pistons, I think, that’s what he called them — I had already gotten fined a couple times and I hadn’t even been on their team for six months,” Cuban said. “So I stood up at the board meeting. He said, ‘Shut your motherf–cking ass up until you have done something in this league.’”
Cuban said the atmosphere around owners eventually changed as older figures left the league and newer owners entered with stronger basketball interests and closer player relationships.
“As those people got out, people were more like me,” Cuban said. “They loved the game. They played some. They were more vocal, more connected to the players.”
According to Cuban, that dynamic shifted again in recent years as more ownership groups became tied to private equity and business-focused structures.
“Now it’s P.E. guys and it’s run much more like a business than as a passion,” Cuban said. “That doesn’t apply to everybody — there are certainly exceptions. It just changed completely.”
The longtime Mavericks figure also linked those observations to his decision to sell his majority ownership stake. Cuban sold control of the franchise to the Adelson and Dumont families in late 2023, while retaining a minority share and continuing involvement in basketball operations during the transition period.
Cuban said he informed NBA commissioner Adam Silver about his thinking more than a year before the transaction became public.
“I sold at the end of ’23, but I literally had written an email to Adam Silver in October ’22 saying this is what I’m gonna do, and gave him these exact reasons,” Cuban said.
