In the NBA, villainy rarely looks like chaos. It often arrives in the form of billionaires who believe their power serves a greater good. The NBA’s old guard of terrible owners – Donald Sterling, Glen Taylor and Robert Sarver – have mostly exited the stage, having offloaded their controlling stakes in recent years. Even James Dolan, long regarded as the autocratic overlord of the New York Knicks, has begun to loosen his grip on basketball operations. Yet as the league evolves, the absence of these figures creates a vacuum – one in which a new archetype of villainous owner can emerge. And from where I stand, Miriam Adelson is the No 1 example.
Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is worth around $27bn, making her one of the world’s richest women. Her fortune primarily stems from her majority ownership in the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort company. In late 2023, she purchased majority ownership of the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban for $3.5bn. In a little over two years in charge, she has alienated large parts of the team’s fanbase by allowing the trade of a generational superstar, Luka Dončić, who took the team to the NBA finals last season.
