Don Carter (basketball)

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Don Carter in trademark cowboy hat at a Dallas Mavericks game, April 4, 2006.
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Don Carter in trademark cowboy hat at a Dallas Mavericks game, April 4, 2006.

Don Carter was born into a poor family in Arkansas in 1933. However, by 1957, his mother, Mary Crowley made a fortune in a direct marketing interior decoration business, known as Home Interiors & Gifts. The business was sold to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and is estimated to have netted Carter $470 million.

Carter, along with Norm Sonju, founded an NBA expansion team, the Dallas Mavericks, in 1980. His $12 million investment in the team eventually earned him $125 million when he sold the team in 1996 to an investment group led by H. Ross Perot, Jr..

Over the years, Carter has owned many different types of businesses, including a Rolls-Royce dealership. Other businesses include banks, trucking firms, hotels, rodeo arenas, and cattle ranches. Always seen wearing a cowboy hat, Carter looks the part of a Texas billionaire.