Can Dallas Be the Next Las Vegas? The Mavericks Owner Is Betting On It
Sheldon Adelson’s son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, has big plans for his team and its city. He got off to a rocky start.
Dumont at the American Airlines Center in Dallas earlier this month.
Photographer: Zerb Mellish for Bloomberg BusinessweekPatrick Dumont grinned as he walked to his courtside seat to watch his team, the Dallas Mavericks, play the Sacramento Kings. The owner, wearing a dark blue blazer and boyish haircut, greeted a young fan with a handshake as he passed. But something was off; the arena was erupting in boos. Dumont sat down and turned to Rick Welts, the Mavs’ chief executive officer. “Is that for me?” Dumont seems to ask in a video capturing the moment. Welts appears to answer in the affirmative.
The booing shouldn’t have come as a surprise. About a week earlier, on Feb. 1, 2025, the team’s general manager, Nico Harrison, had made what Mavericks fans and NBA watchers widely considered one of the most shocking basketball decisions of all time. With Dumont’s approval, he had traded Luka Dončić, the Mavs’ beloved, 25-year-old superstar, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Even more bizarrely, Harrison didn’t shop Dončić to the highest bidder. He spoke exclusively with the Lakers in secret conversations, and in return for Dončić likely didn’t get as many draft picks as he could have.