Nobody’s ever accused Mavericks owner Mark Cuban of being tactful. Or classy, or dignified, or humble, or…well, you get the picture.
So it comes as no surprise that Cuban eschewed the high road after Deron Williams, whom the Mavericks made a major run at in free agency, said he elected to stay with the Nets in part because Cubes couldn’t drag himself away from a taping of his reality TV show, “Shark Tank,” for Williams’ visit to Dallas.
As told by the :
Asked if Cuban’s absence affected his decision, Williams said flatly, “Of course.”
Williams added: “A lot of the questions that me and my agent had for them really didn’t get answered that day — you know, pertaining to the future. And I think if he was there, he would have been able to answer those questions a little bit better. Maybe would have helped me.”
Never one to admit he’s wrong, with a barb of his own before the Mavericks’ exhibition game in Spain:
“I’m a big D-Will fan, but I’m kind of surprised that he would throw his front office under the bus like that by saying that I would make a difference,” he said. “I would have expected him to say — like I’d expect one of our guys to say — ‘Hey I’m so thrilled with the front office and the moves we made and our team that it wouldn’t have mattered what he did.’
“I’m flattered that he thought my presence would have made more of a difference than what the Nets’ management did.”
This, after Cuban admitted to a Dallas radio station in August that his presence might have made the difference in Dallas’ sales pitch.
dmccarney@express-news.net
@danmccarneySAEN