Mark Cuban may be grooming Sheldon Adelson’s 20-something adopted son to lead Mavericks: sources

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban may be grooming Sheldon Adelson’s 20-something adopted son to run the NBA team after the shocking sale to the late casino mogul’s family, The Post.

Cuban, who sources said considered Adelson a mentor, is expected to maintain operational control of the franchise despite agreeing to sell his majority stake in a deal that values ​​the Mavs at about $3.5 billion.

Sources told The Post that Cuban’s understudy will be Matan Adelson, a Stanford graduate who once worked as an intern for the club and recently joined the ranks of basketball team owners with the purchase of a club in Israel.

“I imagine that within five to seven years Matan will lead the team,” said a source close to the Adelsons. “Surely when I’m 30.”

Cuban will maintain a roughly 20% stake in the Mavs, sources said, but the surprise sale raised speculation that the businessman and reality TV star was facing a liquidity crisis.

He was in talks to sell a minority stake in the Mavericks in recent weeks until he paused them to pursue a broader deal with the Adelsons, a source close to the sale process said.

Cuban, 65, and Matan Adelson did not return calls for comment.

Matan is one of two children adopted by Adelson and his second wife Miriam, the source said. She and the family have an estimated net worth of more than $32 billion following the 2021 death of her husband, who before his death at age 87 owned the famed Venetian hotel in Las Vegas and controlled the gambling giant. Las Vegas Sands Corp.

In March, the Adelsons allegedly paid 20 million dollars for the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team and put Matan in charge.

“I have been a Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan particularly since I was young,” Matan said in a news release after the sale. “To me, Kobe embodied courage, an unmatched work ethic and incredible determination. Growing up, I was greatly inspired by him, watching him strive to be the best version of himself, and through my leadership, I hope to manifest this mentality in this club now and in the years to come.”

In addition to working as an intern in the Mavericks’ corporate sponsorship department in 2016, Matan was a summer investment banking analyst for Goldman Sachs before graduating from Stanford in 2021, according to his LinkedIn page.

“Matan is a very polite boy,” the source said.

For example, Matan had a party with his Stanford friends at the Venetian and everyone was surprisingly respectful and friendly, said a source close to the Adelsons.

The Adelsons had a family suite at the Staples Center in Los Angeles while Matan was growing up and frequently used it to watch Lakers games, the source said.

They have also been close to Cuban for a long time, the source added.

During the NBA Summer League held in Las Vegas, the Mavericks would stay at Adelson’s hotels, the first source close to Adelsons said, fueling Matan’s interest in basketball.

“Sheldon had a relationship with Cuban for 15 to 20 years,” said a source close to the Adelsons. “I think Mark saw Sheldon as a mentor to him.”

When the Cuban show “Shark Tank” needed a location to film during COVID after they closed their studio in Culver City, California, the producers went to Adelson’s Venetian to do the shows.

Cuban, who raised eyebrows last week when he announced he was leaving the show, has invested heavily in cryptocurrencies over the years, further fueling questions about his finances after the collapse of exchanges like FTX and Binance.

He had investments in ApeCoin, the Ethereum token, cross-chain wallet service Blockto, Crypto Injective Protocol, NFT metaverse developer Althea Artificial Liquid Intelligence Token, and blockchain ecosystem Ocean Protocol. according to a December 2022 article on CoinGape.

He also owned a stake in and heavily promoted the now-bankrupt Voyager Digital.

“He has failed in many of these crypto efforts,” said a source close to Cuban.

The deal that will allow Cuban to manage the Mavericks is unusual but unprecedented.

Scott Malkin and Jonathan Ledecky took control of the New York Islanders in 2016, and although Malkin owned more than 50% of the team, Ledecky is considered the one running the hockey club.

The discounted price the Adelsons paid for the team may be due to the fact that Cuban does not own the American Airlines Center, where the Mavs and their star Luca Doncic play. The lease expires in 2031.

The Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion last year, while the small-market Milwaukee Bucks recently reached $3.5 billion.