Mavericks owner Mark Cuban understood from where D-Will was coming from with his decision, but not with Jason Kidd's, who ditched Dallas to make the surprising move and sign with the New York Knicks. Cuban, who made an appearance on 103.3 FM's Ben and Skin's Show, decided to rip the veteran point guard for his move.
Cuban made the statement that if he did in fact get Williams, what would he do next? By giving Williams the max contract, Dallas won't have enough money to spend on other players to help Dirk Nowitzki, or let alone trade other players.
"I don't want to pick on Deron Williams because he's a great, great, great player, and so it's not necessarily him, per se," Cuban said. "The conversation we had going back and forth -- and obviously the decision was to go for him -- but the conversation was, 'OK, once you add $17.1 million in salary to what we'd have with Dirk and Trix (Shawn Marion), then what do you do?' That's your squad. And it's not just your squad for this year. It's your squad for next year other than the $3.3 million mini midlevel.
"So that was a challenge that we had because we want to win, and everybody talks about Dirk's window. Well, not only would it have been difficult to add players, then it also would have been difficult to trade players, and in reality that was the same problem that Deron had. Because he looked and saw the same thing and said, 'OK, now what are you going to do?'"
Williams ended up signing with Brooklyn to a five-year deal worth $98 million, which was one more year and $25 million more than what the Mavs or any other team was able to offer.
However, with what happened to Kidd was much different. The 39-year-old was prepared to sign a three-year, $9 million deal with Dallas until he ultimately left and signed the same exact contract with the Knicks. With that happening, Cuban said he wouldn't even consider retiring his No. 2 jersey.
"I was more than upset. I thought he was coming. I was pissed," Cuban said. "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."
I can see where Cuban is coming from. Heck, I'd be pissed too if something like that happened to me.
Photo Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images
Josh Dhani is the founder of FootBasket. You can read more about him at his website. Follow him on Twitter @joshdhani.
