{"id":151652,"date":"2026-02-05T04:43:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151652\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T04:43:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:43:30","slug":"stephen-a-smith-wonders-if-mavericks-are-moving-to-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151652\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith wonders if Mavericks are moving to Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the Dallas Mavericks turn the page on Anthony Davis, Stephen A. Smith wonders if they\u2019re also turning the page on Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>After trading Luka Don\u010di\u0107 to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package centered around Anthony Davis ahead of last season\u2019s trade deadline, the Mavericks have quickly ended that era by now dealing Davis to the Washington Wizards. Some analysts believed the big three of Davis, Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg could see Dallas as title contenders. But the big three will never see the court together.<\/p>\n<p>Sending Davis to Washington for a package including Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley III and draft compensation should now officially cement the Don\u010di\u0107 move as one of the worst trades in NBA history. And Stephen A. Smith wonders if it\u2019s all part of a larger plan by owner Miriam Adelson to move the team to Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it possible that the owner for the Dallas Mavericks is looking to relocate the team to Vegas?\u201d Smith asked on his Wednesday afternoon SiriusXM show from Radio Row. \u201cAnd it would be easier to do that if you acquired a team and they suck and you want to move on, rather than have a team that\u2019s winning and you trying to skip town. I\u2019m just suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just bringing that up,\u201d Smith continued. \u201cThe Dallas Mavericks suck. They\u2019re 31-49 since acquiring Anthony Davis. It\u2019s not Jason Kidd\u2019s fault. It\u2019s not Cooper Flagg\u2019s fault. But that damn ownership. Is it possible that you suck \u2013 you traded away Anthony Davis after trading away Luka Don\u010di\u0107 cause you want to lose cause it would be easier for you to move the team to Vegas? It\u2019s easier to move a losing team than it is a winning team. It might be farfetched because you ain\u2019t losing a team out of the Dallas market\u2026but I\u2019m talking about this particular owner. I\u2019m just saying, my Spidey senses are tingling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adelson and her family purchased a majority stake in the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in 2023. In addition to the Mavericks, Adelson is also the majority owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino. The NBA wants a franchise in Vegas with it seeming like only a matter of time before it happens.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is right, you can connect enough dots with the gutted Mavericks and their new owners to find a path to Vegas. But the <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nba\/bill-simmons-media-rights-deal-reconsidering-expansion-pelicans-relocation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NBA sees expansion as the most viable path to Vegas<\/a>, and seemingly doesn\u2019t plan on using Dallas to get there. Additionally, Rick Welts, CEO of the Mavericks has insisted the franchise remains committed to Dallas under Adelson, citing a desire for a new downtown arena and more economic growth opportunity than even what Vegas has to offer. But until that arena is built and the Mavericks\u2019 roots are cemented in Dallas, dealing Don\u010di\u0107 for Davis and then trading Davis for 50 cents on the dollar will continue to spark conspiracies like the one Stephen A. Smith shared Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Dallas Mavericks turn the page on Anthony Davis, Stephen A. Smith wonders if they\u2019re also turning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,102,104,2582,103,4646,4975,18264,8715],"class_list":{"0":"post-151652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-luka-doncic","14":"tag-mark-cuban","15":"tag-miriam-adelson","16":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}