Cuban rips Kidd for exiting Dallas
Jason Kidd shouldn’t expect a warm welcome when the Knicks visit Dallas in November.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ripped his former player yesterday, saying he would not consider retiring Kidd’s number after the way he handled his free agency decision.
“I was more than upset. I thought he was coming. I was [ticked],” Cuban said on ESPN Dallas radio. “JKidd is a big boy. He can do whatever he wants. But you don’t change your mind like that. I’m sure I’ll get over it at some point, but as of now, I wouldn’t put JKidd’s number in the rafters.”
Kidd signed a threeyear deal with the Knicks last month after backing out of a deal with Cuban’s Mavericks. Kidd was entertaining a similar offer from Dallas, where he won an NBA title in 2011, when he decided to come to NewYork.
“It hurt my feelings, period, because I felt that we had developed a relationship and I thought that he was committed to the organization. It sure seemed that he was,” Cuban said.
The former AllStar also was helping to court prized free agent Deron Williams to Dallas.
“I mean, JKidd was active in going out there and talking to Deron Williams the whole time. I guess it was more shocking and surprising than anything else,” Cuban said.
Williams signed a fiveyear, $98 million deal with the Nets, ending Cuban’s pursuit of the 28yearold point guard. The outspoken owner said both he and Williams realized the team would have been unable to add more pieces to create a cham pionship contender.
“The conversation was, ‘OK, once you add $17.1 million in salary to what we’d have with Dirk [Nowitzki] and [Shawn Marion] then what do you do?’ That’s your squad,” Cuban said. “And it’s not just your squad for this year. It’s your squad for next year other than the $3.3 million mini midlevel.
“So that was a challenge that we had because we want to win and everybody talks about Dirk’s window. Well, not only would it have been difficult to add players, then it also would have been difficult to trade players and in reality that was the same problem that Deron had. Because he looked and saw the same thing and said, ‘OK, now what are you going to do?’ ”
Despite losing out on Williams and Kidd, Cuban did not rip the former in the same vein that he did Kidd, and admitted signing Williams may not have been the best move.
“I don’t want to pick on Deron Williams because he’s a great, great, great player and so it’s not necessarily him, per se,” Cuban said. “But in hindsight, I don’t know if I would have been happy. I think we’re in better position now than we would have been if we had gotten him.”