It's Groundhog Day for Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks.
Just as Bill Murray had to play the day over and over again until he got it right in the movie, Cuban and the Mavs needed to keep working the trade over until it was acceptable to the NBA powers. So here we go again.
Pending league approval, the deal works something like this:
Dallas gets Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright.
New Jersey gets Devin Harris, Trenton Hassell, Desagana Diop, Maurice Ager, and Keith Van Horn. The Nets would also receive two first round picks in 2008 and 2010, and Mark Cuban would write a check to the Nets for $3,000,000.
The original trade included Devean George and Jerry Stackhouse. But when George said, “Hell no, I won’t go!” the Dallas fans let out a collective “Whaaat!” like Moe Sizlack of The Simpsons fame. The trade was stopped dead in its tracks.
Further complicating matters, it was learned that Jerry "Big Mouth" Stackhouse said there was a backdoor deal of sorts; New Jersey would release him, then after 30 days, he would triumphantly return to the Mavs.
Although back door, under the table deals, are actually a long standing trade tradition in the NBA, Stackhouse forgot about the don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t open your big fat mouth policy and completely ruined the deal.
The Mavericks were discombobulated and in limbo. As Dirk Nowitzki mentioned at the All-Star Game, “its been a strange week.”
Dallas’s season and playoff hopes looked very bright with Jason Kidd at the helm and piloting the Mavs’ ship. After the deal looked doubtful, it looked as if Dallas had lost its captain and rudder, taking on water and sinking badly in the wildly competitive Western Conference.
Mark Cubans’ Mavericks were now ‘Lost’ on the island in the Bermuda Triangle of its own making—trapped in never-ending episodes of what could’ve been.
If Cuban created this mess, then Mark could surely fix it. Right?
Old Mark would’ve run on to the court at the All-Star Game during introductions, grabbed the microphone, and protested the Mavs were being cheated by the evil and conspiring Commish, David Stern.
He'd then go on to pay the largest fine in NBA history. In fact, it’s rumored Stern has several blank checks, already signed by Cuban, for the very purpose of paying fines.
The new Mark has learned that no crisis is so big and so large, that it can’t be solved by a simple signature on a check. And that’s exactly what Mark Cuban did.
No George, no Stackhouse, no Problem!
First he replaced George and Stackhouse with Trenton Hassell. Then in an unusual move, Cuban signed Keith Van Horn who had been out of basketball for two years, and paid him $4,000,000 to go play for the Nets. Wow, I wonder how long it took Keith to say yes to that?
Amazingly, the math works, if you're a billionaire.
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