Mavs' Mark Cuban 'cleared the air' with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer
Two billionaires made up after the DeAndre Jordan affair and everything's cool, now. Kumbaya.
By
Matt Moore
•
2 min read
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is understandably going to need a little while before he gets over the DeAndre Jordan debacle. It left the Mavs high and dry, with no ability to tank out or reload with other options. Cuban's still not good with Jordan, but on his no-trace app Cyber Dust, Cuban did make a statement about meeting Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and how there's not ill will between those two. Via the Dallas Morning News, this has been edited for spelling and flow.
Hey mavs fans. So I had a nice conversation with Steve Ballmer, owner of the Clippers yesterday during our NBA meetings.
It started off more than a little frigid, but we both cleared the air on a few things. I told him exactly what I told other owners. I didn’t have a problem with his Hail Mary approach to keeping a player. I understood why they did it. And even how they did it. They got their player back. End of story.
There 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. Nothing that happened with this deal was the result of the moratorium.
The thing about the NBA is that you don’t know which deals are the good deals and which arrows you avoided till you start playing the games.
My guess is that we open the season against the Clippers. That’s when the real fun will begin.
Source: What happened when Mark Cuban met with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer | | Dallas Morning News.
It will be interesting to find out Cuban's thoughts on Blake Griffin and Doc Rivers. Griffin spoke with Cuban after Jordan agreed to sign with Dallas, and the two have very different recollections of the conversation.
It's not surprising that Cuban's OK with Ballmer, though. For one, just as the players and coaches do, the owners stick together. Second, Cuban has always said that he'll do whatever is in the best interest of his club, within the rules. He applauds the free market dynamics. At least he's consistent in that approach.
It really comes down to Cuban being at least partially OK with the decision Jordan made, but not the way it went down. The fact that he doesn't blame the moratorium should give advocates for change pause. If anyone was going to want to change how the system works, it should be Cuban. He's got more perspective than that.
Cuban's down, but this is often when he does the most with what he has. Watching his next move should be high entertainment for NBA fans.
