Patrick Dumont confirms Mavericks will play Rockets in China next preseason

During Patrick Dumont’s 22 months as team governor, the Dallas Mavericks have surprisingly rolled to an NBA Finals, shockingly traded Luka Doncic and lucked into drafting Cooper Flagg.

It’s safe to say the roller-coaster has left Mavericks fans feeling alternately euphoric, queasy and confused, but what’s abundantly clear is that 51-year-old Dumont is fast making his mark on the NBA and global basketball.

The evidence occurred over the weekend when Phoenix and Brooklyn played a pair of preseason games in Macao, China, ending what in essence had been a six-year cold war between the NBA and the Chinese government.

And it was evident following Sunday’s second game, when Dumont confirmed to the South China Morning Post: “Yes, the [Dallas] Mavericks and the [Houston] Rockets, here in Macau next year. Are you ready?”

Mavericks

This past weekend’s games were played in the Las Vegas Sands-owned Venetian Arena, within a Sands Macao Resort. Dumont, COO of Sands, played a major role in mending relations between the NBA and Chinese government that became frayed if not broken when then-Houston general manager Daryl Morey in 2019 tweeted support of Hong Kong protestors against China.

Morey has been president of the Sixers since 2020, but Houston’s inclusion in next October’s not-officially-announced NBA China games certainly is significant. It’s also significant that during Sunday’s Suns-Nets game Dumont sat next to Chinese basketball icon and former Rocket Yao Ming.

Though Dumont was not available for comment to The Dallas Morning News over the weekend, last December we spoke to Dumont about his and Sands’ role in the NBA’s return to China, with their efforts beginning well before the Adelson-Dumont family purchased the Mavericks’ controlling interest from Mark Cuban in December of 2023.

Here’s what Dumont told The News last December, two weeks after his return from Macao, after jointly announcing the NBA China games’ return with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Questions and answers lightly edited for clarity:

Q: What is your excitement level about the NBA China games?

Dumont: “We think this is a great thing and very exciting to get back. And again, I’m sort of thinking this from a standpoint of Las Vegas Sands, because this was, this had nothing to do with the Dallas Mavericks.

“This is something that Las Vegas Sands, the company, in partnership with the NBA, using our facilities in Macau, brought the NBA Games back to China for ‘25 and beyond. We’re beyond excited about it. China is a very big market for the NBA. A lot of very excited fans, and they haven’t seen a game live in years. And so this enables fans to actually see the greatest athletes in the world playing the most exciting sport in the world, up close.”

Q: How long were negotiations and what was your role?

Dumont: “It took a couple years to work on. It wasn’t a quick thing. We’ve been working on it with the NBA for a long time, making sure the situation was right. We had a renovated arena. There was just a lot of things we had to do to make it possible.

“But after a lot of hard work on both sides, we’re there. I think it’s very exciting. And I think it’s great for (our) business to be able to trade internationally. I think it’s great for the two largest economies to have an open dialog and have trade between them. And I think this is a U.S. business and we’re having a great time presenting a very exciting sport in this market, which was not happening for a while.

“So it was great. And I think it’s great for the league. I think it’s great for fans globally. I think it’s exciting to have fans, to be able to connect around the world. It’s really special. There are not many sports that can do that, and so we really appreciate it. And we’re very happy with this partnership with the NBA from the Las Vegas Sands side.”

Q: I hope you didn’t mind that when I wrote about your role, I invoked Richard Nixon and the United States table tennis team in comparison.

Dumont (laughing): “I gotta tell you something, when I read that man, I laughed. I thought that was an amazing reference. Thank you. That was really cool.

“I don’t think people necessarily appreciated just how much this means for fans there. You know, I think there are huge NBA fans. There are people who follow the NBA on social media, and I think it’s great to be able to go back there and sort of make that connection again.

“I think mutual understanding and dialog is very important, and so that’s why the Olympics work. Connecting people in different cultures through sport is a great thing, and that’s what we’re trying to do here. I think it’s very positive.

“There’s just a huge desire to see the NBA, and that’s global. It’s in Asia, it’s in China, it’s in Japan, it’s in the Philippines, it’s in South America, it’s in Africa, it’s in Europe. I mean, people love the NBA and it connects fans all over the world. And I think it’s a very positive thing. So if we can do some part in helping connect people globally, that’s a great thing.”

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