Roughly two years after longtime Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the franchise to the Adelson and Dumont families in Dec. 2023, things began to go off the rails. Technically, the chaos didn’t start until general manager Nico Harrison shockingly traded star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick.
After the deal transpired, it sent Mavericks fans into a frenzy, many of whom targeted Cuban, as he was expected to continue running basketball operations for the franchise after the sale of the team. Cuban has since explained that the NBA didn’t allow that aspect to be included in the contract for the sale of the team, and now he’s opening up about exactly why (and who) didn’t want him around the team.
Mark Cuban Says the ‘Person Who Traded Luka’ Didn’t Want Him Around the Mavericks
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If Mavericks fans needed another reason for their pointed frustration at Harrison, this is effectively the icing on the cake. While speaking at the All-In Summit with The All-In Podcast, Cuban revealed the details of why he didn’t continue running basketball operations, as Kevin Gray Jr. from the DLLS Mavs Podcast highlighted.
“When I did the deal, the presumption was that I would still be running basketball,” Cuban said. “We tried to put in the contract, but the NBA said, ‘The governor is the governor and they make all final decisions.’ I was involved, and then we went on this run where we went to the finals, and rather than trying to inject myself all the time, I was like, “I don’t want to get in the way; we’re rolling, and that was a mistake.”
Then came the bombshell from Cuban, who effectively admitted it was Harrison who didn’t want him around.
“There were some things that happened internally, where the person who traded Luka [Doncic] didn’t want me there, and so they won, I lost,” Cuban continued. “That’s in the past, I’m still hardcore Mavs, MFFL.”
Warning: The video below contains some NSFW.
Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban on why he was not able to retain control of basketball operations when he sold the team:
“…some things happened internally and the person [Nico Harrison] who traded Luka [Dončić] didn’t want me there.” #MFFL
(🎥: @theallinpod) pic.twitter.com/0eUpgOUXfC
— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) September 10, 2025
Considering the trade that sent five-time All-NBA First-Team guard Doncic to the Lakers effectively blindsided the entire NBA, it later surfaced that Harrison had negotiated the deal with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka over time. In turn, this points back to Harrison as the reason why Cuban had little to no involvement with the Mavericks in recent years, and also was left completely shocked by the trade himself.
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