After two decades as a passionate and hands-on owner, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban took many by surprise in December 2023 when he sold his majority share in the team without explanation.

But in three recent appearances — on “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” the "All-In" podcast, and the "Life in Seven Songs" podcast — he shared the reasons behind his decision, which involved family as well as the new reality of owning a team in the NBA.

The family factor was that he didn't want to inflict the burden of owning a sport team on his three children. On the business side, he said that keeping an NBA team solvent was more complicated than it used to be.

His energies are currently focused on Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, his online drug store in which he's "disrupting" the pharmaceutical industry by selling prescription drugs at a markedly lower price — charging a flat 15 percent markup over cost, plus pharmacy fees.

Cuban sold a majority stake in the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands, the largest casino operator in the world, whose goal is to open a casino in Dallas — a venture that would help keep ownership of the team profitable.

"When I first bought [the Mavericks] in 2000 I was the tech guy in the NBA,” Cuban said. “I was the media guy. I had every edge and every angle. Now fast-forward 24 years later, in order to sustain growth to be able to compete with the new collective bargaining agreement, you have to have other sources of revenue. And so you see other teams, in all sports for that matter, talking about casinos, talking about doing real estate development — that’s just not me. I wasn’t going to put up $2 billion to get an education on building."

More states have begun to legalize sports betting, making arenas and stadiums with built-in casinos a growing trend, in places like Las Vegas, Arizona, and Washington DC. Adelson has already purchased eight parcels of land on the site of the former Texas Stadium at the intersection of Loop 12 and SH-114 in Irving, where a potential casino and new arena could be built, if Texas were to legalize gambling,

Family
Cuban's other reason for stepping back was his consideration of the impact on his three kids.

"My kids are now 15, 18, and 21," he said. "Over the next 10 years, that's a lot of pressure on them to deal with the trust fund issues [of owning a sports team]. I took all that pressure off them."

"Running a professional sports team isn't always good," he said. "When you're winning, it's great. When you're going to the finals, everybody loves you. But when you're having a bad season — you see the hate on social media. I just don't want them to put up with that abuse. That was the primary reason."