It’s been almost a week since DeAndre Jordan’s infamous free-agent flip-flop, which means it’s time for all the behind-the-scenes rub to come out.
On Monday, Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com published a fabulous in-depth analysis of what went down between Jordan, the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Clippers and DJ’s agents last week. It has a lot of juicy deets within it, so an entire read-through is a must, but one tale, tall though it could be, caught my eye.
Blake Griffin apparently had a chance encounter with Mark Cuban and Chandler Parsons at a club after DJ initially decided to sign with the Mavericks. According to Cuban, Griffin said DJ was smart to choose Dallas. Griffin, however, remembers a different version of those events.
From MacMahon and Shelburne’s piece:
Parsons and Cuban spent Friday night in L.A., bar-hopping in Manhattan Beach where they randomly ran into Griffin, who lives nearby. They were celebrating landing Jordan, Griffin was lamenting losing him, and they shared a drink together just because.
“Blake told me DJ did the right thing,” Cuban said. “That he was happy for him.”
Griffin remembers the conversation slightly differently. It was more that he had to accept Jordan’s decision, and he understood why he would want to leave and grow into a bigger role. Earlier that week, Jordan had asked Griffin if he was going to stay in L.A. when Griffin had the option of becoming a free agent in two years. Griffin told him to make his own choice. He’d be happy for him either way, because that’s what friends do for each other.
This is probably your typical, he-said, he-said NBA hearsay. But because Jordan ended up changing teams, and because Griffin, as detailed by MacMahon and Shelburne, essentially told Jordan to man up and honor his agreement with the Mavs at first, it’s headline-worthy.
Even if Griffin did say Jordan made the right decision, it probably wasn’t entirely genuine. The NBA is a competitive league, but it seems Griffin was clued in on almost every one of Jordan’s thoughts, so the resentment he felt toward the Mavericks was probably minimal at the time of his happy-accident meeting with Cuban and Parsons. He’s rich, partying it up in Hollywood and probably feeling pretty good. Why would he start shit with Cuban and Parsons? And if Jordan is truly his friend, he probably was legitimately happy that he found a place where he thought he could blossom, even if that place wasn’t originally inside the Clippers’ locker room.
But if he wasn’t, well, what is he supposed to say?
“Screw you guys. Cole Aldrich is an O.G. and all we need. So there.”
Yeah, nothing like that would ever happen.
Anyhow, file this under “Interesting But Relatively Meaningless” intel.
DJ is back in Los Angeles and Griffin, despite what he may or may not have said to Cuban while partying, is most assuredly happy about it.
