DeAndre Jordan’s free agency defection from the Dallas Mavericks might have been the single most entertaining day in the history of NBA Twitter. Fans, media, and even players joined in on the rampant speculation and rumor mongering surrounding the Jordan household and his free agency future. It’s a day that will be remembered as the Great Emoji War of 2015.
However, in an interview with Ben and Skin on KRLD-FM 105.3, by way of the Dallas Morning News, Chandler Parsons revealed that the emoji heard ’round the world actually started pretty innocuously with his first airplane tweet.
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— Chandler Parsons (@ChandlerParsons) July 8, 2015
He wasn’t actually going to Houston — where Jordan has a summer home — to make sure DJ was sticking with his original verbal agreement to sign with the Mavericks when the free agency moratorium was lifted.
You know what’s funny? Actually, when I tweeted that plane emoji, I was leaving LA and going to Vegas for my girlfriend’s birthday. I wasn’t even going to Houston. I didn’t even think about it initially, then it started blowing up, and obviously the timing of it was perfect and then it just kind of took off with J.J. [Redick] tweeting the car and [Chris Paul] and everybody – I saw the Dodgers, the Warriors, Kobe, MJ, everybody started tweeting it so that was more funny than ever. At that point, it was already over and he was going back to the Clippers, so might as well make light of it.
Parsons also went on to say that his relationship with DeAndre is still intact, but it’s not quite the same as it was before his about-face. Besides all the entertainment it brought the basketball community, the DeAndre decision acts as a pivot point for two Western Conference teams with title aspirations. Clearly, neither side has completely moved on from the situation, which should make for some contentious match-ups during the regular season, and possibly — i.e., probably not — a playoff series.
(Via Dallas Morning News)
