The NBA gave the green light for Mark Cuban to turn over his controlling interest in the Dallas Mavericks to Las Vegas Sands casino scion Miriam Adelson and her extended family.
On Wednesday, the NBA Board of Governors approved the majority stake sale from Cuban to the families of Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and Sivan and Patrick Dumont, who serves as president and COO of the casino company and is Adelson’s son-in-law.
Forbes valued the Mavericks in October at around $4.5 billion.
Latham & Watkins is credited with the assist on the reported $3.5 billion deal that didn’t even require a month to get the league to sign off after it was proposed in late November. Latham advised Cuban on the deal with a team led by partners Frank Saviano (New York) and Nick Dhesi (Houston), with counsel in other areas such as finance, real estate, compensation, IP and more provided by partners Meghan Cocci (Los Angeles/New York), Katharine Moir (Bay Area), Erin Murphy (Bay Area), Ghaith Mahmood (Los Angeles), Nineveh Alkhas (Chicago), Robert Blamires (Bay Area) and Nancy Bruington (Culver City, Calif.).
Mark Cuban Companies CLO Robert Hart and Mavericks GC & Chief Ethics Officer Sekou Lewis worked the in-house side of the deal, which is expected to close this week. Also assisting the Mavs was a team from Jackson Walker’s Dallas office: Partners Brian Lidji and Kyle Hooper as well as Associate Adrian Allen.
Katten advised the Adelson and Dumont families for Sands, led by partner Adam Klein and assisted by Dallas associate Enzo Hernandez.
While Cuban is expected to keep his role over basketball operations, and there hasn’t been any discussion of relocating the franchise, the sale represents a significant shift in ownership for the Mavericks since Cuban bought the team in 2000. It may have a profound impact on the team’s direction and strategy, as Cuban has said he hopes to partner with the Sands on a project that would eventually include a casino, saying Texas is a natural fit for gaming resorts given the state’s tourism clout.
“Imagine creating a Venetian or Bellagio that you’ve seen in Vegas, or if you’ve gone to Macau and some of these other places, in Dallas, in Austin or in Houston. All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘OK, if it’s a bachelorette party, you go to Nashville,’ but why would I go to Vegas and go to the desert when I can go to Texas with all these other benefits that we have?” Cuban said earlier this month, according to the Austin Business Journal.
Cuban added that he remains optimistic that eventually Texas will legalize resort gaming, even if the timetable is measured in decades, according to the Business Journal. “I think, in working with my partners, they know this stuff. And I’ve been working with them on trying to get resort gaming legalized for the past several years,” he said. “Now, just the way things are set up in Texas, it’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be fast. But, again, going back to what I said, if you have a five-, 10-, 15-year horizon, it’s a no brainer.”