Who’s purchasing Mark Cuban’s Mavericks?
“The largest investor of any kind in the history of China”
BY HENRY ABBOTT
Marc Stein broke the news that Mark Cuban plans to sell a roughly $2 billion chunk of the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands.
Stein adds that the deal “requires NBA approval and is already being vetted.” Which means that somewhere, league lawyers are digging into the sources of Miriam Adelson’s money.
The short answer is “China.”
Certainly, Miriam Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands has many businesses, employees, and a global presence. But nothing matters like China. In the last years of his life, Miriam’s late husband Sheldon told Bloomberg TV that more than 90 percent of his money came from Asia. (He added: “As long as I do what the government wants me to do, I love it.”) Every day that income hinges on the powers that be in Beijing, who have almost perfect control over the Sands’ bottom line—most overtly in their ability to restrict travel to Las Vegas Sands casinos in Macau.
A fearless rabble-rouser in American and Israeli politics, Sheldon Adelson stayed largely on message in China, saying things that would fit in Chinese propaganda like “People seem to be living a good life in China” and “Look at the incredible progress China has made.” He also said: “I don’t think the U.S. should be the policeman of the whole world.”
And now Miriam would like to bring her Macau dollars to Dallas.
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