In an episode of the “Game Over” podcast published Friday morning, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul ran through a long list of teams that LeBron James could play for in his 24th NBA season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were on Paul’s list of potential teams. So were the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.
One surprise inclusion? The Dallas Mavericks.
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The words “Dallas + Masai” were scribbled on the whiteboard behind Paul and his co-host, Max Kellerman, followed by the words “Oil,” “Golf,” “Macau” and “Africa.”
“In Dallas, they have oil,” said Paul, the sports agent and longtime friend of James. “They have golf. They have Macau and the Sands Corporation. And then with Masai, you have the whole continent of Africa. A lot comes with Dallas and Masai.”
Paul’s reference to Macau has to do with Mavericks ownership. Team governor Patrick Dumont is the CEO of Sands Corporation, which controls a casino and resort in Macau, a region of China that is specially zoned to allow gambling. The Mavericks and Houston Rockets are going to play a pair of preseason games at The Venetian Macau in October.
It was surprising that Paul listed the Mavericks for several reasons.
For one, James’ greatest professional failure came against the franchise. In 2011, the Dirk Nowitzki-led Mavericks beat James’ “Heatles” — James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — four games to two in the NBA Finals, a bitter ending to James’ first season in Miami.
Secondly, the Mavericks recently ended their relationship with Anthony Davis, another Klutch client with whom James won a championship on the Los Angeles Lakers. The Mavericks sent Luka Dončić to the Lakers for Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. Davis suffered four separate injuries and played in 29 games in his year-long stint with the Mavericks, who traded him to the Washington Wizards in February in what was effectively a salary dump.
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Former Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was fired in November after the Dončić-for-Davis trade flopped. In June, the Mavericks hired Masai Ujiri as their president and alternate governor, a move Paul apparently found impressive.
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Ujiri joined Dallas after spending 12 seasons running the Toronto Raptors. In Ujiri’s time with Toronto from 2013 to 2025, the Raptors had several battles against James’ Cavaliers teams in the postseason. The Cavaliers eliminated the Raptors in the playoffs three years in a row from 2016-18.
When the Raptors finally broke through and won an NBA championship in 2019, James had already left Cleveland to play for the Lakers.
Ujiri has devoted a significant amount of time developing basketball talent and infrastructure in Africa through his Giants of Africa nonprofit, hence Paul’s allusion to the continent.
Could James be on the Mavericks when they fly to China in October? It seems extremely unlikely. But the Mavericks are at least on James’ long (whiteboard) list of teams.