Tyson Chandler Comments on Departure from Mavericks

Tyson Chandler may have played for the Dallas Mavericks twice, but don’t count him as a fan of the team. The 15-year veteran, who has averaged 8.8 points and 9.3 rebounds in his career, signed a four-year, $52-million free-agent contract with the Phoenix Suns this summer after the Mavericks decided not to re-sign the 2012 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.       

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told reporters "I learn from my mistakes" in regard to letting Chandler walk in 2011, but he let it happen again this summer. According to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, Chandler was not happy about it because he felt he would retire as a Maverick, and he didn't hold back when sharing his views:

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I definitely felt like, after winning a championship and help bringing it there, that I was going to be there for the long run. I never heard of a championship team being broken up like that. When they traded for me to come back, I sat at the podium with everybody else and heard them say this was going to be a long-term deal and they weren’t going to make the same mistake as last time and blah-blah-blah. Seven months later, the same thing happens again. But I learned in this business that you can’t trust everybody. That’s why it is what it is.

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ESPN's Tim MacMahon reported Wednesday that Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle thought highly of Chandler despite his short stints in Dallas.

The ironic part for the Mavericks is it seemed that a big reason why they did not re-sign Chandler was because of their pursuit of 2014-15 NBA-leading rebounder DeAndre Jordan. The eight-year veteran Jordan verbally committed to signing with Dallas but decided to return to the Los Angeles Clippers in a messy public ordeal involving Cuban and other Mavericks players.

Cuban told ESPN's Dennis and Friedo radio show (h/t MacMahon) that Chandler has a right to be “salty” with the Mavs, but it doesn’t take too much reading between the lines to see the Mavericks owner is putting the blame on Chandler and his agent.

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He does have the right to be salty.

[...]

I didn’t think it would get to that point. We actually tried to have discussions right at the start of the year about an extension and it kind of just died on the vine. His agent didn’t really take it anywhere, and I was the first to say ‘If you don’t want to take it right now, we’ll try to figure something out at the end of the year,’ because I realized that by waiting that gave Tyson an extra year.

Then the opportunity for DeAndre came along and we were pretty straightforward. Tyson or his agent gave us the ultimatum before the decision was made. He said he wouldn’t wait. That’s his decision. It is what it is. He does have a right to be salty, because I really did suggest to him— and it’s exactly the way I thought—that he’d be here for a long time.

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Chandler told Coro he heard Cuban's comments but wasn’t buying them: “I saw the bulls--t they put out. It’s just bulls--t. Just saving face. It was what it was. It was clear. The whole process was going on while I was basically still in the jersey.”

The plan certainly seemed to backfire for Dallas after Jordan decided to stay in L.A. The Mavericks may have four centers on their roster in Zaza Pachulia, Salah Mejri, JaVale McGee and Samuel Dalembert, but none of those players is the caliber of Chandler.

Chandler is now with a Suns team that showed promise by hanging in the playoff picture until late in the season last year. He is now teamed up with rising star power forward Markieff Morris underneath and gives the young Suns some veteran leadership as they try to break into the playoffs for the first time in six years.

The Mavericks may have Jordan’s return game circled on their schedule, but it’s a safe bet Chandler has done the same with the Suns’ first visit to Dallas.