Ah, yes. Mark Cuban. The vibrant, ever-quotable owner of the Dallas Mavericks. There’s never a dull moment with this guy. One of the great things about him is that he’s damn smart and knows the game. He’s a good enough business man that he sits at a financial from which he could probably purchase all of Indonesia.
But that’s not why we love Cuban. It’s his…shall we say, difficulty with certain situations? Yeah, that’s about right.
Among the many words used to describe Mark Cuban, apparently “attached” is on the list. This off-season, the Mavericks’ point guard Jason Kidd was a free agent. Kidd’s people and the Dallas front office were working on getting him to sign back with the Mavs. Evidently, Kidd chose another route. A completely different route, in fact. The 39 year old PG opted instead to join the New York Knicks, leaving Dallas with about a handful of players on the pay-roll.
As you can imagine, Cuban was none too pleased with Kidd’s decision:
“I was more than upset,” he (Cuban) said during an interview on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM earlier today. “I thought he was coming. I was pissed. J-Kidd is a big boy; he can do whatever he wants. But, you don’t change your mind like that. That was…yeah. I’m sure I’ll get over it at some point, but as of now, I wouldn’t put J-Kidd’s number in the rafters…It hurt my feelings, period, because I felt that we had developed a relationship, and I thought that he was committed to the organization. It sure seemed that he was. I mean, J-Kidd was active in going out there and talking to Deron Williams the whole time. I guess it was more shocking and surprising than anything else.”
–As reported by Chris Yuscavage of Complex Magazine
The prevalent opinion here is essentially the logical one. As Yuscavage put it, “It was business, Mark. You of all people should know that.”
And he really should know that. As Cuban himself mentions, Kidd was involved in the process of courting Deron Williams into joining the Mavs. This is the business of professional sports. Moreover, this is an era of basketball that is seeing player movement through the lens of “loyalty” and the like. Kidd isn’t even at a level anymore where he falls into the whining “super-teams are bad for the NBA” argument.
In his late 30’s, an age not often associated with employed NBA players, Kidd was an instrumental piece of one of the most unlikely title runs in NBA history. If for nothing else, that alone deserves a jersey in the rafters.
Mohamed Abdihakim is a journalism student at Florida Atlantic University. He is a Phoenix Suns fan, who is not prepared for the possibility of Nash winning a title in a Lakers jersey. Mohamed is also a contributor at “Les Snobs”. Interests include International basketball, Mad Men , and blues music. Twitter handle: @Abdi_hakim
