Few of life’s details are as guaranteed as death, taxes and Mark Cuban getting the last word. Cuban is still in Europe traveling with the Mavericks as they play FC Barcelona Regal in Spain today, but word about Deron Williams‘ free agency comments yesterday didn’t take long to reach the Dallas owner. Even as his sixth sense likely feels David Stern reaching for Cuban’s number on speed dial, Cuban shot back.
You’ve seen or heard the comment by now, how Williams said Cuban’s absence from his free agent meeting in July helped clinch his decision to go to Brooklyn. He claims he had questions only the owner could answer, though money couldn’t have been one of those questions: Dallas could offer Williams, at the maximum, about $5 million less than the Nets. Rather than pick up a phone and call (vice versa, really) they walked away without seeing each other in free agency. Cuban was unable to attend because of shooting an episode of “Shark Tank,” about how to make successful business deals, ironically. The Dallas Morning-News has the quotes from Cubes, who as a master of the art of the deal, tries to pin this not as a player asking for clarity, but as a lack of confidence in his new home.
“I’m a big D-Will fan, but I’m kind of surprised that he would throw his front office under the bus like that by saying that I would make a difference,” Cuban said before the Mavericks’ exhibition game against FC Barcelona Regal. “I would have expected him to say – like I’d expect one of our guys to say – ‘Hey I’m so thrilled with the front office and the moves we made and our team that it wouldn’t have mattered what he did.’
“That’s what I expect our guys to say and that’s the way I feel about our team. Again, I’m a big D-Will fan, but it’s not about individual players, it’s about building a team. And I really think we put together a good team for the current team and the future.
“He’s a superstar point guard, but my goal is to build a team. That’s the important thing, to try to win championships.
“I’m flattered that he thought my presence would have made more of a difference than what the Nets’ management did.”
What do you think?
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