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Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont poses for a photo in an upper level suite at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
MACAO, China \u2014 Worthy of a five-bubble\u00a0Tripadvisor rating, our private Venetian Arena tour guide not only was informative, but affable. Animated. Attentive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Was this smiling chaperone really Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont<\/a>? Or was jet lag from the 22-hour Far East trek playing havoc on our senses?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, look at the detail in this corner,\u201d said Dumont, pausing in one of the arena\u2019s 32 posh suites. \u201cYou have the transition to the wood, then you have the leather, then you have wood again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As a few reporters, but of more importance Mavericks<\/a> players and staff, learned over the course of a week in exotic Macao, this wasn\u2019t merely a trip in which Dallas faced Houston twice<\/a> in the NBA China Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a cultural excursion into 52-year-old Dumont\u2019s domain. His court of play. His day job as CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. <\/a>and chairman of its subsidiary, Sands China Ltd. \u00a0<\/p>\n The eye-popping glimpse within the densely populated, 20-casino, dopamine-inducing Las Vegas of China helps illuminate Dumont\u2019s metamorphosis of his NBA organization on the other side of the globe.\u00a0<\/p>\n New basketball president. New general manager. New coach. New corporate culture. During Dumont\u2019s 34 months as governor, the Mavericks gradually, inexorably, have been Sandsified. En route, Dumont hopes, to becoming a five-star-quality franchise. The Michelin Mavericks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Best in class, if not yet on the basketball court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe tip-off of this season is the first time this is Patrick\u2019s team,\u201d Mavericks CEO Rick Welts <\/a>said. \u201cYou can say anything you want about what\u2019s happened before, but this is the first time he\u2019s picked the basketball organization.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n The Dumont and Miriam Adelson families purchased control of the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in December 2023<\/a>. Six months later, Dallas wondrously rolled to the NBA Finals, losing to Boston.<\/p>\n Since then? The disastrous Feb. 1, 2025 trade of Luka Doncic<\/a> on the way to a 39-43 finish. Then the godsend of\u00a0landing No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg<\/a>, but an injury marred season and 26-56 finish.<\/p>\n Dumont\u2019s stealthy offseason hires of president Majai Ujiri<\/a> and NCAA title-winning coach Dusty May<\/a> were reminiscent of his late 2024 luring of\u00a0Naismith Hall of Famer Welts out of retirement<\/a>: hooking and landing seemingly\u00a0uncatchable big fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eight of the franchise\u2019s top 11 business-side senior managers are Dumont hires. Apparently a Marvel Comics fan, he often reminds in meetings: \u201cWe\u2019re gonna be the Avengers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont poses for a photo in front of Cooper Flagg\u2019s locker at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n How Sands\u2019 Macao moves relate back to Dallas<\/p>\n Vindication might win back fans, but what does this Macao trip and tour of Sands-owned 14,000-seat Venetian Arena have to do with Dallas and the Mavericks?\u00a0<\/p>\n Though effectively corporate siblings helmed by Dumont, the Mavericks and Sands seemingly are apples to oranges. Same with Dallas and Macao.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s true Macao is home to five of Sands\u2019 six integrated resort and casino properties (the other is in Singapore), which made their Mavericks purchase possible<\/a> and are a big reason the\u00a0Adelson-Dumont families comprise American pro sports\u2019 fourth-wealthiest owners ($33.5 billion).<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sands\u2019 lifeblood, though, is casino gaming, which isn\u2019t legal in Texas and by all appearances won\u2019t be anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mavericks are planning an arena, headquarters, training facility and entertainment district on the 104-acre former site of Valley View Mall<\/a>, but Dumont and minority shareholder Cuban\u2019s long-held dream of an arena-resort-casino combination is off the table<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At least one luxury hotel is planned for the entertainment district, but Dumont said it won\u2019t be Sands-affiliated. That isn\u2019t to say Sands expertise and resources aren\u2019t part of the equation since, obviously, Dumont personifies both intangibles.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, yes, the new arena will be luxurious, perhaps with leather in suite corners.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think the question is, \u2018How does this relate back to Dallas?\u2019 \u201d Dumont said. \u201cI think what this shows is there\u2019s an approach, an aesthetic, a desire for hospitality, a desire for top-flight food and beverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to create a unique and really high-level fan experience that can be executed really well in Dallas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As for the resort and casino possibility, perhaps that component of Macao can be replicated on the land Sands purchased in Irving<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t save land [in the arena development] for some future date, when maybe, possibly, potentially casino gaming will pass,\u201d Dumont said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do what\u2019s right for the Mavericks today. Then if sometime in the future there\u2019s an opportunity for gaming in Texas, we\u2019ll find land for that effort.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Certainly, Macao, a special administration region of China and the only place in the country with legalized gaming, is testament to Sands\u2019 know-how to scale, pamper and entertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though gambling has been legal here since the 1850s, it was modest in scope when Portugal transferred Macao to China in 1999. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Las Vegas Sands founder and Dumont\u2019s future father-in-law, Sheldon Adelson, opened a Sands casino on Macao\u2019s peninsula in 2004, but he shocked the locals by holding a news conference a year later to announce he would create \u201cAsia\u2019s Las Vegas\u201d on a strip of swampland.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today the Cotai Strip includes four Sands resort-casino-convention-entertainment integrations with a combined 1.8 million square feet, 11,000 guest rooms and $16 billion in Sands investment \u2014 with Sands properties boasting 70% of Macao\u2019s tourists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johns Hopkins and Columbia educated Dumont, who joined Sands in June 2010 as vice president of corporate strategy, has helped build upon\u00a0Adelson\u2019s legacy since his 2021 passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe actually drew the strip on a napkin, like you hear in legends, then he went out and did it,\u201d Dumont said. \u201cHe put his own money in. He designed everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually an amazing story and it\u2019s a lot of fun, too. People have a great time coming here, and he\u2019d be really proud of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A view of the Venetian Arena as seen from an upper level suite on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Repairing China-NBA ties<\/p>\n The Adelson-Dumont families long had NBA ownership ambitions, too. In part they were kindled in 2007 when Cleveland, Orlando and the Chinese National team played exhibitions in The\u00a0Venetian Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year later, Team USA\u2019s Redeem Team trained and played two exhibition games here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since buying the Mavericks, Dumont\u2019s stature among fellow owners quietly has grown, according to multiple people who attend NBA Board of Governors meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t hurt that Dumont is a welcome contrast to Cuban\u2019s publicly vocal establishment-bucking for the better part of two decades.<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n But, more tangibly, Dumont probably will be a GFFL \u2014 Governor Favorite For Life \u2014 for his pivotal China-NBA diplomacy predating his Mavericks ownership. \u00a0<\/p>\n On Oct. 4, 2019, then-Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted an image captioned, \u201cFight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The backlash from mainland China included TV blackouts, severed sponsorships and pulled NBA merchandise, with league commissioner Adam Silver estimating lost revenue of $400 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n China-NBA tension was still smoldering when, in November 2021, Dumont and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum met about the idea of preseason games returning to Asia. \u00a0<\/p>\n In May 2022, the NBA shared with Dumont the framework of the deal that would be signed in July 2023. The NBA China Games returned last year with Brooklyn playing Phoenix here, the start of a multi-year contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s probably single-handedly the most important person in making these games happen,\u201d Tatum said in a recent interview. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Dumont committed to a $150 million Venetian Arena renovation that was completed in 2024. Sands committed two expo halls for NBA House fan activations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is such an entertainment hub for the region,\u201d Tatum said, adding that the arena is world-class. \u201cThe amount of money they\u2019ve invested in creating a world-class experience for fans is something you can\u2019t find any place in the region and few other places outside the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dumont is a self-described student of arena interior design, and of basketball. Welts said Dumont has been leading design meetings for the Mavericks\u2019 new arena, with as many as 20 consultants and meetings lasting three hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n Welts said Dumont\u2019s focus has been to plan aspects of the arena from the inside out. Mavericks president Ethan Casson said Dumont\u2019s attention to detail has become legendary, but he also fosters collaboration.\u00a0<\/p>\n That exactness is exemplified in the optics and flavor of Dallas in the\u00a0NBA House exhibit in Macao. Inside\u00a0a duplex-sized replica of the Dallas skyline and American Airlines Center<\/a> are hundreds of artifacts organized in a room-by-room timeline of the Mavericks\u2019 46-season history.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the Texas food section of the NBA House, Dumont wanted his favorite Dallas brisket, Terry Black\u2019s, so Sands chefs spent months trying to replicate the flavor, and gallons of Terry Black\u2019s sauce last week were flown in from Dallas.<\/p>\n NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont pose for photos before a preseason NBA basketball game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n A full-circle moment in China<\/p>\n In a sense, these China Games were a full-circle week for Dallas, the NBA, China and Houston, the latter of which was Chinese government-exiled in the Morey tweet aftermath.\u00a0<\/p>\n A quarter-century ago, it was the Mavericks and Rockets franchises that broke the Great Wall-like China-NBA barrier in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n On June 30, 1999, the Mavericks selected 7-1 Wang Zhizhi with the 36th pick of the NBA draft. <\/a>No Chinese or East Asian had ever been drafted, never mind played, in the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mavericks spent the better part of two years trying to pry Wang from his Bayi Rockets contract and his commitment as a Fu Tuan (lieutenant) in the People\u2019s Liberation Army.\u00a0<\/p>\n Negotiations led by then-Mavericks owner Ross Perot Jr. and general manager Don Nelson turned on a pivotal dinner hosted by Beijing\u2019s mayor. The feast began with the beheading and cooking of a live snake.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese love basketball,\u201d Perot said in a recent interview. \u201cWe brought the legendary Don Nelson to China, all of Beijing stopped and all the leaders came to have lunch with us.\u201d<\/p>\n Wang didn\u2019t make his Mavericks debut until April 5, 2001, and he played only 60 games as a Maverick, but his breaking the China-NBA barrier led to Houston drafting Yao Ming No. 1 overall in 2002. \u00a0<\/p>\n For entrepreneur and real estate developer Perot, who sold his Mavericks majority interest to Mark Cuban in 2000, other obstacles vanished.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of basketball, I saw things in China that very few Americans have been privileged to see,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s because of basketball that I got plugged into the Princelings network and became friends of the Communist Party leadership.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dallasite Perot is board chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He\u2019s long known Dumont, and they became closer after the Dumont and Adelson families purchased Perot\u2019s remaining Mavericks stake.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very impressed with the Sands operation,\u201d Perot said. \u201cThey\u2019re deep in China, and Patrick knows the Chinese culture. Sands is active in building bridges between American business and China business \u2014 which need help, because it\u2019s pretty strained.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Dallas Mavericks locker room pictured at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News A view of a main concourse level suite at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News The press conference room for the NBA China Games is seen at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News A welcome desk is seen on an upper level of suites at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News A hallway leads to upper level suites at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Performers rehearse before an NBA preseason game at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News An event level VIP lounge pictured at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News An event level VIP lounge pictured at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News A view of a green room at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News A view of the bathroom in the Dallas Mavericks locker room at the Venetian Arena on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Macao.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Building bridges in Dallas<\/p>\n As the Mavericks return to Dallas to prepare for the Oct. 21 start of the regular season<\/a>, against these same Rockets, Dumont understands bridge-mending with many fans must continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n His players, basketball support staff and business-side employees are noticing, and appreciating, Dumont\u2019s Sands CEO mindset.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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