The NBA Board of Governors is gearing up to greenlight the sale of the Dallas Mavericks franchise to Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont, with a target approval date set for December 20th. The sale of majority interest in the Mavericks to the Adelson and Dumont families of Las Vegas has been in the works, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently notified the league's current Board of Governors, including incumbent Mavericks governor Mark Cuban, about the upcoming meeting for voting on the sale.

If the sale goes through, only two stakeholders will remain: Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont as majority owners, while Mark Cuban will retain a substantial minority stake and continue overseeing the team's basketball operations. This indicates that the families of five current minority owners, including well-known figures such as Ross Perot Jr. and the family of the late Donald Carter, have agreed to sell their stakes to Adelson-Dumont.

Patrick Dumont is expected to take over as the new Mavericks governor, replacing Mark Cuban, who will serve as the alternate governor. The sale of the Mavericks to Adelson-Dumont is likely to gain approval from the NBA Board of Governors, as the families bring considerable wealth to the table. According to Forbes, their estimated net worth is a whopping $33 billion, making them the third wealthiest owners in American professional sports, outmatched only by Steve Ballmer (owner of the Clippers) and the Walton family (owner of the Denver Broncos).

The Adelson-Dumont fortune originates from the gambling industry, which is now explicitly embraced by the NBA in states where sports wagering is legal. Tilman Fertitta's Landry's, Inc., which owns Golden Nugget casinos in several states, is one such example of this convergence between sports and gambling.

If the sale is approved on December 20th, it will meet the objective set by the Adelson and Dumont families of completing the transaction by the end of 2023. Additionally, this significant sale will occur just two weeks short of the 24th anniversary of Mark Cuban's majority purchase of the Mavericks back in 2000.

While the reported valuation of the Adelson-Dumont purchase stands at $3.5 billion, sources familiar with the agreement suggest that the final valuation will be closer to $3.8 billion. Among the current minority owners, Ross Perot holds the largest stake, while the remaining four stakeholders - the Carter family, Hal Browning, Mary Ardinger, and Gretchen Williams - each possess 4.13% stakes. It is worth noting that Browning and Ardinger had declined previous opportunities to sell their stakes after previous ownership changes.

If the December 20th sale goes through at the projected valuation, the sale of a 4.13% stake would gross an impressive $156.9 million for these minority owners. This windfall represents a significant return on investment from their initial contributions to the franchise's establishment in 1980, when the team was founded by Don Carter and Norm Sonju for an expansion fee of $12 million.

The sale of the Mavericks to the Adelson-Dumont families marks yet another chapter in the rich history of the franchise, promising a prosperous future under new ownership. Fans eagerly anticipate the finalization of the sale and the strategic leadership that Adelson-Dumont will bring to the team.