Did Mark Cuban’s role on “Shark Tank” cost the Dallas Mavericks a superstar to pair with Dirk Nowitzki?
Deron Williams told New York reporters Monday that Cuban’s absence from the Mavs’ free-agency pitch to the All-Star point guard “of course” impacted Williams’ decision to re-sign with the Brooklyn Nets.
The Mavs sent coach Rick Carlisle, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and front office assistant/former Mavs star Michael Finley to New York to try to woo Williams, a native of Dallas suburb The Colony.
Cuban was in California taping episodes of the ABC show “Shark Tank” at the time.
“I think (Cuban) would have been able to answer a lot of the questions me and my agent have for him that really didn’t get answered that day pertaining to the future,” Williams told reporters. “And I think if he was there he would have been able to answer those questions a little bit better. It maybe would have helped me.
“(I wanted to hear about) the direction of the future of the team, other than Dirk. Players they were thinking about. Everything was basically just their track record, trust their track record, which is, you know, I can honor that, because they do have a good track record but it’s not enough for me, especially when (Nets general manager Billy King) was updating me daily.”
Cuban has said that he thinks the Mavs are better off having not signed Williams.
“I’m very happy with the ways thing turned out for the Mavs and wish D-Will the best,” Cuban said via email from Barcelona, Spain, where the remodeled Mavs play an exhibition game Tuesday.
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WRITTEN BY Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com & FULL STORY HERE
