Picture one star free agent center playing tag against a couple of tech billionaire NBA owners. Tag...you're it! No, tag...you're it!
As if DeAndre Jordan reneging on his verbal agreement to join the Dallas Mavericks to remain with the Los Angeles Clippers late last week wasn't crazy enough of a debacle, the situation also involved Mark Cuban and Steve Ballmer.
A few days after addressing how Jordan ditched his Mavs, leaving them high and dry, Cuban took to his same Cyber Dust social media messaging app Wednesday (July 15) to reveal that he and Clippers owner and Microsoft co-founder Ballmer met Tuesday and "cleared the air on a few things."
The meeting took place in Las Vegas, where the owners flocked to for the league's Board of Governors' meetings. And at first, Cuban said it was "more than a little frigid" between the outspoken billionaires.
"I told him exactly what I told other owners, I didn't have a problem with his Hail Mary approach to keeping a player," Cuban said via the Cyber Dust messaging app. "I understood why they did it. And even how they did it. They got their player back. End of story."
Remember after Jordan had given Cuban his word that he'd be signing with the Mavs two weeks ago, Ballmer and star Clippers players visited the center in his Houston home last week and didn't leave until he changed his mind, signing a four-year extension worth $87 million.
Looking back at the debacle, Cuban doesn't blame the league's lengthy moratorium period between the July 1 official start of free agency and July 9, the first official day that contracts can be signed.
"They are still a few unresolved issues that the NBA will have to work through, but one I don't feel is an issue is the moratorium," Cuban said, as reported by ESPN.
He added: "The thing about the NBA is that you don't know which deals are the good deals and which arrows you avoided 'til you start playing the games. My guess is that we open the season against the Clippers. That's when the real fun will [begin]."
Now, that would be must-see TV.
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