Mark Cuban Gives A Behind-The-Scenes Look Of The DeAndre Jordan Debacle

Perhaps the craziest part of DeAndre Jordan’s Emoji-based decision (Emojicision? Come back to me on that one) was how he treated Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks while the Clippers were racing to his home in Houston and locking him down with cards and videogames: He ignored them completely. He ghosted an NBA team.

ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported a version of events that involved Cuban frantically driving around Houston trying to get DeAndre’s address, which was picked up everywhere but which Mark Cuban denied in the strongest possible terms. Broussard’s version is pretty implausible — after all, how do you even get a guy to agree to a contract in the first place if you don’t know his address?

Now, Cuban has taken to his social-messaging app Cyber Dust to provide his version of events, and it does seem a lot more believable.

Dear Mavs fans,

After all the nonsense coming from an ESPN employee on Twitter, I thought I would provide the events of the day on Tuesday.

Through all of Monday [DeAndre and I] were texting back and forth discussing players available, the amount of cap room we had left. Who our staff liked. Who he liked. How excited he was.

Then on Tuesday the communications basically stopped and we started hearing rumblings from multiple people that something was up.

So I flew down to Houston and got a room at the Galleria, which is just a few minutes from his house. I had my driver take me to his house. It’s inside a small gated community but the gate was wide open so we drove in and I literally walked up to his door. There was no one home. So I texted him saying that I was there, “I know something is up. Let’s talk.” He texted me that he was on a date.

I told him to have fun. I wasn’t in a rush, that I was happy to come by there and say hi or if he wanted to make the date fun, take them to Dallas for a night out.

He didn’t respond.

After about 10 minutes I went back to the hotel. I wasn’t going to sit in front of his house. I didn’t think that was right. When I got back to the hotel I texted him that I wasn’t in front of his house. Have fun on his date and we will talk. He hit me back immediately saying thanks.

He knew I was in town. He knew I was close by. I knew something was up. I was getting the same reports everyone else was. I also knew his agents were coming to town. It made sense that he would talk to them and worst case, even if he was having second thoughts the agent would be able to give me updates.

Like any big career move it’s natural that he would have second thoughts. So while I was concerned, I wasn’t worried. So I went to bed.

Cuban says that he did arrive at Jordan’s house, but that no one was home at the time, and that DeAndre claimed to be on a date. Cuban then spent the night in the hotel trying various means of communication to get in touch with DeAndre, but it was clear the player was avoiding the owner. Jordan has every right to change his mind before he signs a contract, but if Cuban’s story is true (and until we hear DeAndre’s side of things), he was done wrong. Give the people who you agreed with at least a chance to keep you around, or at the very least tell them straight up when you’ve changed your mind.

At the end of Cuban’s message, he promises “more to come,” and also hilariously pimps his Cyber Dust service:

“And for those who care, I like this medium because it’s like having a face-to-face conversation. I can say what I want. No trolls. I can reach any size audience. And respond to people easily.”

At this point, everyone’s told their side of the story but DJ himself. So how about it, DeAndre? Care to enlighten us?

(Via Kenny Ducey)