In 1978, Californian businessman Garn Eckardt met Dallas lawyer Doug Adkins, and mentioned he was trying to raise capital to move an NBA team to the city. Asking for a possible partner, Adkins recommended him one of his clients, Home Interiors and Gifts owner Don Carter. Negotiations with Eckardt fell through, but Carter remained interested in the enterprise as a gift to his wife Linda, who played basketball while at Duncanville High School. At the same time, Buffalo Braves president and general manager Norm Sonju grew an interest in bringing the NBA to Dallas as he studied possible new locations for the ailing franchise. While the Braves went to California as the San Diego Clippers, Sonju eventually returned to Texas, and was introduced to Carter by mayor Robert Folsom, one of the owners and team president of the last professional basketball team in the city, the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association which moved to San Antonio in 1973 to become the San Antonio Spurs. Sonju and Carter tried purchasing both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Kansas City Kings, but disagreement on relocation stalled the negotiations, leading them to instead aim for an expansion team. The league was initially reluctant to expand to Dallas, given Texas had both the Spurs and Houston Rockets, and the 1978-79 NBA season was proving unprofitable 18 out of the 22 teams lost money and unpopular, television ratings fell 26 percent. Still, during the 1979 NBA All-Star Game weekend, NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien announced the league would add two new teams in the 1980-81 season, with teams in Dallas and Minneapolis. Once the Minnesota team backed out, only Dallas remained, and through negotiations with general counselor and future commissioner David Stern, the expansion fee was settled on the $12.5 million.

Perot purchased the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team from original owner Don Carter in March 1996. Under his four-year tenure, the Mavericks made no more progress on the court as they had in Carter’s final seasons, and nowhere near what they would do under his successor, Mark Cuban; it was said that he was a basketball novice, or disinterested in the sport and was using his position as team owner to front his projects, most notably Victory Park, which was anchored by the American Airlines Center which opened in 2001. He sold the team to Cuban in January 2000 and the franchise has not had a losing season in the 15 full seasons afterward, winning two Western Conference championships and the 2011 NBA Finals.

In May 2010, Perot, who retained 5 percent ownership, filed a lawsuit against Cuban, alleging the franchise was insolvent or in imminent danger of insolvency. In June 2010, Cuban responded in a court filing maintaining Perot is wrongly seeking money to offset some $100 million in losses on the Victory Park real estate development. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2011, due in part to Cuban asserting proper management of the team due to its recent victory in the 2011 NBA Finals.[20] In 2014, the 5th Circuit Court affirmed that decision on appeal. Following his initial defeat, Perot attempted to shut out Mavericks fans from use of the parking lots he controlled near the American Airlines Center.

Perot retains a minority stake in the team to this day, as does his predecessor Carter.

On January 4, 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from H. Ross Perot, Jr.

In the 20 years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavericks won only 40% of their games, and a playoff record of 21–32. In the 10 years following, the team won 69 percent of their regular season games and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons except for one. The Mavericks’ playoff record with Cuban is 49 wins and 57 losses, including their first trip to the NBA Finals in 2006, where they lost to the Miami Heat.

NBA Finals
The Mavs entered the 2010 – 2011 NBA Finals as underdogs, due to Miami’s “Big Three” coming together during the course of the 2010 – 2011 NBA Playoffs. Mavericks captured their first ever NBA title with a 105 – 95 victory, completely reversing what had happened in the 2006 NBA Finals. Nowitzki scored 21, including 18 in the second half, and Terry provided 27 points off the Dallas bench. Nowitzki was so emotional after the game that he headed to the locker room before the game had concluded, and had to be coaxed back onto the floor for the NBA Championship trophy presentation.