Mark Cuban Finds a Basketball Team He Can Actually Buy

When a man sells his basketball team and then immediately starts looking for another one, it is probably safe to assume he misses owning a basketball team.

Mr. Cuban, who parted with control of the Dallas Mavericks in 2023 but retained a stake of roughly 27 percent, has purchased an undisclosed interest in the Brampton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. The terms were not disclosed, though one imagines the price was somewhat less than the $3.5 billion the Mavericks commanded.

The investment reunites Mr. Cuban with Al Whitley, who spent nearly 22 years with the Mavericks organization, including in front-office roles, and now serves as chief executive of the Honey Badgers. Mr. Cuban told Front Office Sports that he has also "done business" with the team's majority owner, Leonard Asper, "for a long time" — a relationship that included Mr. Cuban's 2019 sale of a majority stake in HDNet LLC, parent of AXS TV and HDNet Movies, to Mr. Asper's Anthem Sports & Entertainment. (It is nice when one's Rolodex keeps producing.)

Mr. Cuban's stated rationale is that Canada has become, in his words, "a powerhouse" for basketball talent. He has a point. The reigning N.B.A. most valuable player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is Canadian, as are Jamal Murray, R.J. Barrett, Andrew Wiggins and Dillon Brooks. Yet the country has only one N.B.A. franchise, the Toronto Raptors, leaving what Mr. Cuban sees as considerable room for development.

The CEBL, founded in 2017 and operational since 2019, fields 10 teams across six provinces, with roughly 73 percent of its players Canadian. The league says it featured more than 15 players with N.B.A. experience last season.

The Honey Badgers open their 2026 season Friday against the Ottawa BlackJacks. Games will appear on CBC TV and stream free online.

Whether the investment represents a shrewd bet on Canadian basketball or simply a man who cannot sit still in retirement remains to be seen. Perhaps both.

Original story published in Front Office Sports: "Why Mark Cuban Bought Into a Canadian Basketball Team"