Deron Williams: Free Agent PG Must Listen to Dirk Nowitzki If He Wants to Win

Unless something drastically changes, Deron Williams will either be playing in a Dallas Mavericks or Brooklyn Nets uniform during the 2012-2013 season. 

According to ESPN's Chris Broussard, there have been some subtle signs lately that point toward a return to the Nets. 

Deron Williams only had eight people in attendance at his New York restaurant-based birthday celebration, and Nets head coach Avery Johnson was one of those who were both invited and in attendance. Nets general manager Billy King claimed he was invited as well.

Johnson is an understandable inclusion because it's easy to build a relationship with a coach, but I doubt that Williams has had enough interactions with King to build the connection necessary to generate an invite for personal reasons. 

Broussard also reported that Williams made a very brief appearance at King's press conference and smiled.

Those may be some minute details, but we read into everything this time of year. 

Dirk Nowitzki seems to be cognizant of these events and is now attempting to lure D-Will to Dallas, as he should. The following quote was transcribed by the Dallas Morning News after the forward spoke with KTCK-AM's Hardline: 

"

I’m anxious. We’d love to get D-Will (Deron Williams) in here. That’s no secret. If you look at the league now, if you look at those top teams, they all have two or three playmakers you can hand the ball to and they do their thing. We just need to get better. I think we have some question marks going into the summer. We signed Rick (Carlisle) for four years so we got that out of the way. Now, it’s time to get some players in here and get better. I always said we’re not happy losing in the first round. We feel like we need to compete every year at the highest. We’ll see what happens.

"

If Williams values winning over personal fame, he'll listen to Dirk and allow himself to be recruited into a Mavericks uniform. 

The Nets may be the sexier team because of their move to Brooklyn, their unrevealed jerseys and the affiliation with Jay-Z, but they aren't in the same position as the Mavericks. Despite the first-round loss to the juggernaut that was the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Mavs remain a solid basketball team just one or two key pieces away from potentially winning another title. 

Other than MarShon Brooks, who is still very much a work in progress, Brooklyn doesn't have many pieces in place. Sure, the free agents could follow Deron, but there's no guarantee there. 

You know what is a guarantee? 

That Dirk Nowitzki remains with the Mavericks and continues to play at a high level for at least one more season. The combination of Dirk and D-Will would be one of the elite duos in all of the NBA. 

No one would blame Williams for choosing fame and fortune over winning, but his fingers would be more assured of remaining ringless.