For 16 months, the Mavericks and Stars’ discord largely has been behind the scenes, other than bubbling forth last October in filings of dueling lawsuits.
That made Friday afternoon’s summary judgment hearing the first public glimpse of bad blood between Dallas’ NBA and NHL franchises, with their respective attorneys trading verbal blows for a little more than two hours in Texas Business Court.
The scene was the Walsh classroom of SMU’s Dedman School of Law. Afterward, Judge Bill Whitehill didn’t rule on any of the seven motions for summary judgment, but if Friday’s sporadic fireworks are an indication, the case seems destined for jury trial, currently scheduled for May 11.
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“Your honor,” Stars co-counsel Frank Carroll said in closing, “we ask that you deny the Las Vegas Mavs’ — excuse me, Dallas Mavericks’ — motion for summary judgment and grant the Stars’ motion.”
It was an obvious parting swipe at the Mavericks and Las Vegas-based team governor Patrick Dumont. Location and point of operations is a central theme of why these teams find themselves here, jousting not on a field of play, but in a makeshift courtroom.
In attendance Friday were several dozen SMU law students and faculty; a handful of reporters and both franchises’ expansive legal teams, including Mavericks general counsel and chief ethics officer Sekou Lewis; and Stars president and CEO Brad Alberts.
Sekou Lewis, the Dallas Mavericks general counsel and chief ethics officer, center, is seen during a hearing concerning the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars lawsuit over control of American Airlines Center in the Texas Business Court at Karcher Hall on the SMU campus, Friday, March 6, 2026, in University Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
It had been four months and nine days since the Mavericks, last Oct. 28, filed a 253-page petition against the Stars. The Stars counter-sued the next day.
The Mavs’ petition seeks injunctive relief and finality on a breach of contract dispute the Mavericks raised in October 2024.
The Mavericks allege the Stars breached a clause in both teams’ 1998 franchise agreement with the City of Dallas, before American Airlines Center’s 2001 opening. The clause requires the teams’ corporate headquarters to be within Dallas city limits.
The Stars have had their headquarters and training facility in Frisco since 2003. In October 2024, the Mavericks alleged the breach and claimed control of Center Operating Company — which operates AAC — and ever since have held both teams’ arena revenues in escrow.
Naturally both franchises hired high-powered law firms — Winstead for the Stars, and for the Mavericks, Jackson Walker. Mavericks lead attorney Chip Babcock has litigated for the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban.
“Oprah always asks me when we’re in litigation, ‘Why are we here?’ Babcock said. “And that’s a good question for this case. And why we’re here may shed some light on where we go from here. But there were two events that triggered this.”
Babcock recounted summer and early fall negotiations in 2024 between the Stars, Mavericks and City of Dallas — with the latter two believing all sides agreed to a $300 million refurbishing of American Airlines Center, at no cost to the Stars.
The Mavericks and Dallas officials also believed the Stars had agreed to remain in AAC through 2061, with the NBA team building a new arena in time for the 2031-32 season. In an October 2025 interview with The News, Alberts strongly denied a deal had been reached. The Stars now are negotiating with Plano for a potential move there.
The second triggering event, Babcock said — “the straw that sort of broke our back” was in October of last year, when the Stars refused to fund bonuses of Center Operating Company executives. The Mavericks wound up funding the $400,000.
Dallas Mavericks lawyer Chip Babcock gestures during a hearing concerning the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars lawsuit over control of American Airlines Center in the Texas Business Court at Karcher Hall on the SMU campus, Friday, March 6, 2026, in University Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Babcock presented slides while speaking, pausing for effect on a wide-angle photo of AAC.
“As the Court has recognized, this is a very important case, not only for the Mavericks, but for the Stars as well,” he said. “But more importantly for the City. This structure is magnificent. It is absolutely magnificent.”
Whitehill interrupted the paused silence: “Keep going.”
“The situation we find ourselves in is because of this impasse between our ownership of the operating company and the Stars claiming ownership of it,” Babcock continued.
“It [AAC] is not being maintained. It’s not being improved. It has problems that any building this age will start to encounter that are not being addressed. So somebody has got to be in charge, or in six years, we, the citizens of Dallas, are going to face with this magnificent building the same problems we’re facing with City Hall today, where a different group of people responsible for the building didn’t keep it up.”
Judge Bill Whitehill is seen during a hearing concerning the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars lawsuit over control of American Airlines Center in the Texas Business Court at Karcher Hall on the SMU campus, Friday, March 6, 2026, in University Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Three days before the Mavericks filed suit last October, the Mavericks sent a photographer to Stars HQ in Frisco. The photo of the HQ’s facade showed, in big white letters, “Dallas Stars Executive Offices.”
The photographer was sent back in December. By then someone had removed “Executive” from the facade.
“These pictures fortunately often tell, and do here, a thousand words,” Babcock said.
Whitehill, a former justice on Texas’ Fifth Court of Appeals, at times listened impassively, but on several occasions pushed back at attorneys on both sides. That includes when he asked Babcock point-blank:
“Why did it take so long to raise this [breach] issue?” he asked, noting that the Stars moved their headquarters to Frisco in 2003 but before that had been based in Irving since the early ‘90s.
“I think that the fair answer to that question,” Babcock said after a pause, “is nobody wanted to rock the boat.” He said both franchises continued to spend money improving AAC for two decades, as recently as 2023.
Dallas Stars lawyer Joshua Sander is seen during a hearing concerning the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars lawsuit over control of American Airlines Center in the Texas Business Court at Karcher Hall on the SMU campus, Friday, March 6, 2026, in University Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
To use basketball and hockey vernacular, Babcock and co-counsel Chris Bankler and Stars lead counsel Joshua Sandler and co-counsel Carroll alternated verbal hard fouls, trash talk and checking into the boards.
“Your honor, Mr. Babcock said ‘Someone has to be in charge,’” Carroll said. “Well, who they’re alleging should be in charge is DSG [Dallas Sports Group]. And so who is DSG? Well, it’s a Vegas corporation that traded Luka [Doncic] for a bag of magic beans.”
“Injured bag of beans,” interjected Babcock.
“Well, yes,” Carroll said. “And of course Anthony Davis.”
Staff writers Lia Assimakopoulos and Eric Prisbell contributed to this story.
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