NBA NOTEBOOK: Could Mark Cuban’s unusual $3.5m Mavericks sale delve team into chaos? And why Ime Udoka’s ugly spat with LeBron James is NOT a good look for the Rockets coach

Last week, the Adelson family – which runs the Las Vegas Sands casino company – confirmed that it was in talks to buy a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks from owner Mark Cuban.

That news was surprising enough at first glance, as Cuban has been one of the NBA's most progressive and successful owners since purchasing the franchise in 2000.

But beneath the headlines of the proposed transaction was a much more interesting piece of information.

“Cuban will retain equity in the team and full control of basketball operations,” says Shams Charania of The Athletic reported.

Such an arrangement would be curious for any departing owner, let alone one as hands-on as Cuban, whose reported $3.5 billion sale would be part of an effort to bring legalized sports betting to Texas.

While some owners simply delegate tasks and hire the best people to work for them, Cuban is actively involved with the Mavs.

Aside from being a fixture at Dallas games – a rarity among owners – there are plenty of examples of his direct involvement over the years.

When the team tried to sign DeAndre Jordan in 2015, he flew to Houston and stayed in a hotel just minutes from the center's home base to try to make his pitch.

“I had my driver take me to his house,” he wrote on his messaging app Cyber ​​Dust.

“It's in a small gated community, but the gate was wide open. So we drove in and I literally walked up to his door.”

Three years later, when the team was trying to draft Luka Doncic in the NBA Draft, Cuban directly called Hawks owner Antony Ressler to work out a trade, he said on 'All smoke.' They finally got their man by offering a protected top-five pick in next year's draft, in addition to Trae Young.

And last week, former Mavs forward Chandler Parsons provided more details about “Up and Adamshow he texted Cuban for investment advice while he was on the team, and still does to this day.

“Most owners don't have a relationship with their players,” he said.

All this is to say, does this sound like an owner who enjoys giving up each kind of power to the Adelson family?

While the concept of a team controlled by a minority owner is rare, there is precedent for it – and the results have reportedly been less than ideal.

Premier League team Crystal Palace is managed by Steve Parish, who reportedly owns 'only' 10 percent of the club, while the Sixers' Josh Harris and David Blitzer also have stakes, and businessman John Textor owns a majority stake of more than 40 percent . per cent.

But Parish and Textor – who owns several other clubs and invested in Palace in 2021 – have not had a smooth relationship, with the pair falling out in January and barely getting along, according to The guard.

Textor was reportedly unhappy with the delays he saw in the Lyon purchase after Parish initially blocked him from transferring his Palace shares to holding company Eagle Football Holdings. He had also become 'frustrated by Parish's hands-on approach.'

Of course, there is no concept of multi-club ownership in the NBA, and it's not at all a given that Cuban and his new stewards won't get along.

But Parish's issues with Textor could look like a cautionary tale, and there's probably a reason we haven't seen this arrangement in the NBA yet.

Maybe Cuban is smart enough to make it work.

Warriors who don't have enough ammunition for a real title fight

In a league of big twos and big threes, the Warriors definitely have a big — and their supporting cast wasn't good enough to help Stephen Curry.

Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins are doing worse than last year, 2021 first-round pick Jonathan Kuminga hasn't performed quite as hoped and Chris Paul is still a great passer, but not a championship needle mover at 39 years old.

All of these ingredients make Golden State 9-11 – good for 11th in the West – with the team in the middle of a 3-7 skid.

Curry is still one of the sport's best players, but a repeat of his 2022 championship heroics with the same group is looking increasingly unlikely.

A trade for an All-Star like Pascal Siakam, as Bill Simmons proposed would give the Warriors a much-needed new look.

Viral Clip of the Week: Ime Udoka's trash talk with LeBron James doesn't look good

Ime Udoka is just eight years older than LeBron James — far less than the gap between some of the league's newcomers and the elder statesmen.

But Udoka is a coach, hired by the Rockets to lead an extremely young group of players, and there are certain lines that shouldn't be crossed by those with that title — especially when you're talking to arguably the greatest player of all time.

So there was understandably a strong reaction among NBA fans and media when seeing Udoka James tell James to “stop crying like a man” during a game against the Lakers.

Udoka was eventually sent off after also appearing to call James a 'soft boy', although he could argue that such language is quite common among players. That's true, but coaches have to do their best to rise above it.

Especially for someone whose maturity and decision-making have recently been questioned, this doesn't look good.