When the Dallas Mavericks won the game that got them into the NBA Finals last month, it was time for the league to present the Western Conference championship trophy to the team’s owner.
To the surprise of viewers across America, that person wasn’t Mark Cuban.
Cuban—one of the most boisterous, combative and iconic owners in sports during his two-plus decades in control of the Mavericks—was standing at the side of the podium. Instead, someone that basketball fans were a lot less familiar with stepped up, uttered a few brief words, and walked off with the prize.
That was Patrick Dumont, who took over as the Mavericks’ governor, the owner who represents the franchise within the league, when Cuban sold the team last December.
