Mark Cuban keeps DeAndre Jordan texts up his sleeve
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban watches a game against the Clippers from the edge of his seat at Staples Center on Oct. 29.
DeAndre Jordan didn’t just back out of a commitment to the Dallas Mavericks. He also initiated a Cuban message crisis.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Wednesday he would release texts Jordan sent him over the summer while Cuban wooed the free-agent center “if there’s ever a good reason to release them.”
And what might constitute a good reason?
“You know there’s reasons that make your wife mad,” said Cuban, his arms glistening with sweat as he stood in front of a stair-stepper in the back of the Mavericks’ locker room after completing a pregame workout. “Who knows?”
Jordan didn’t seem overly concerned about the issue.
“I mean, as long as there’s not naked pictures of me,” Jordan said after the Clippers’ 118-108 loss to Dallas at American Airlines Center, “I couldn’t care less.”
Cuban said he also received texts from other Clippers players over the summer “and those were even more interesting.” But those messages won’t be revealed at a date to be named later because Cuban said he deleted them.
Cuban said he did not correspond with Jordan over his messaging app Cyber Dust, which quickly deletes the messages after they are sent, because “it was too soon to convert him” to the fledgling software.
There might have been another reason for Cuban to rely on texting with Jordan.
“It did cross my mind that he would change his mind,” Cuban said of the player who re-signed with the Clippers for four years and $87.6 million. “So …”
Cuban said he was not mad or bitter about Jordan’s change of heart but acknowledged he liked to have fun with the situation. Asked about an ESPN promotional commercial featuring Jordan, Cuban said, “That was DeAndre Jordan? You’ve got to introduce me. I don’t know, maybe someday somebody will introduce me to that guy. I don’t know his name. You can tell him I said that.”
Cuban said he decided not to show some parody videos on the scoreboard during the game.
“Entertainment is one thing, but the league is kind of finicky about that stuff,” Cuban said. “I thought it would have been funny, but there’s just no point. [The game] will stand on its own and the fans have enough to have fun with.”
Cuban said he wouldn’t lead the boos from his seat along the baseline.
“But if he falls in front of me,” Cuban said, “I’ll step on him or something. Do a macho Randy Savage pose, or give him the pile driver.”
Back issues
Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick hobbled to the locker room midway through the second quarter and did not return after experiencing back spasms. He had scored 10 points in 13 minutes to that point.
“I don’t think it’s good, if you want me to be honest,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said when asked about Redick’s injury. “I mean, I don’t know how long, but that’s a big loss for us, obviously, and somebody else just has to step up. But I don’t know. J.J. said he’ll be fine, but that’s usually what guys say when you ask them how they’re doing.”
Rivers said he did not know if Redick would be able to play in the Clippers’ game against Phoenix on Thursday.
Twitter: @latbbolch
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