Chandler Parsons certainly did not hold back when asked for his opinion on the whole DeAndre Jordan fiasco. A day after Jordan went back on his agreement with the Dallas Mavericks and returned to the Los Angeles Clippers, Parsons spoke with Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas, giving his thoughts on what exactly happened with Jordan and why he had the change of heart.
“He wasn’t ready for being a franchise player. He was scared. He was scared to take the next step in his career. There was no other reason other than that he was comfortable and he has friendships there.”
Parsons’ words may sound harsh, but that’s understandable, given the whirlwind that he’s been through in the past 24 hours or so. Parsons recruited Jordan heavily, talked to him on a near-daily basis and did everything he could to bring Jordan into the Mavericks fold. All of the stuff he said about Jordan, such as him becoming the best center in the NBA, wasn’t bravado, he truly believed it. Jordan believed it, too, or at least that’s what Parsons thought. To have worked so hard for something, accomplish that thing, then have it unfathomably taken away at the last minute must be a wrenching experience.
The refreshing part of Parsons’ interview was the absence of athlete pomposity. Parsons didn’t swear off all contact with Jordan, nor did he swear enmity. In fact, he said he and Jordan were still friends.
“I’ll still be friends with him, but I can’t get over the way that he’s put our entire franchise in jeopardy. It’s normal to get cold feet. It’s normal to get second thoughts, but you don’t back out of a commitment of this much magnitude this late in the game and just leave us high and dry.”
It’s unfortunate that this saga unfolded and ended the way it did. No party was going to be happy with the outcome once news emerged that Jordan was having second thoughts. Parsons is a player possessed of boundless confidence, and to see him so clearly hurt (and human) is striking. Maybe Jordan was scared, maybe he wasn’t ready. That may not be clear, but what is clear, as Parsons says, is that he completely fumbled the process.
(ESPN)
