The Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, managed to invoke an image that was both sordid and heartbreaking at the same time, as he expressed his feelings on DeAndre Jordan’s decision to back out on a move to the Mavs and return to the LA Clippers.
“When you have a situation like DeAndre, make-up sex is always the best sex, but after the make-up sex is over, you stare at that same face and realize the problems are the same,” Cuban told The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Wednesday. “It’s hard for free agents to get past that sometimes.”
Apart from the strong sexual chemistry formed around arguments, Cuban said he hadn’t learned any serious lessons form the incident. “Nothing. In all types of business you have to understand the person you’re dealing with, and there are things about him that we didn’t know and gave him credit for that we probably shouldn’t have given him credit for. It was a decision he couldn’t stick to and it’s over. That’s just the way it works.”
Cuban did however say he wished he had convinced Jordan to change his Twitter profile to reflect the center’s commitment to Dallas after he had verbally agreed to move to the Mavericks.
“I think the only thing I would have done differently is make him change his Twitter profile picture right off the bat,” Cuban said. “I think by having it just stay the way that it was, it gave him an out. He hadn’t fully committed. Having him change his social media profiles right then was something I thought about and I thought, ‘Nah, that’s not an issue. Let’s not bring that up.’ But it happens. You move on. Next.”
Cuban was stung again this week after Richard Jefferson chose the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Mavericks. But Cuban said he had no hard feelings towards Jefferson.
“People change their minds,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that. Richard Jefferson called me yesterday or the day before, and we had a long talk. He changed his mind. It made sense for both parties to say ‘OK, let’s be friends.’ One of the things I’ve learned, and I learned it probably with Steve Nash: Life is a long, long, long time; basketball is a short career. It may be five, it may be 10, it may be, if you’re lucky, 15 years of your life, so you put things in context.
“From a Mavs standpoint, did it screw us up just because of the nature of free agency? I think we’ve recovered nicely so far, but it wasn’t optimal.”
