Deron Williams says absence of Mark Cuban from crucial meeting helped him decide in favour of Nets – NBA News
When the Dallas Mavericks made their pitch to free agent point guard Deron Williams during the offseason, their owner Mark Cuban was missing from that meeting. And now, a few months after that meeting, Williams has admitted that his absence was one of the reasons why he chose to re-sign with the Brooklyn Nets.
The Mavericks decided to let go of some key players after the 2010-11 NBA season, in which they won the NBA championship. Tyson Chandler was one of the most crucial players that the Mavericks decided to let go from the championship winning team as they hoped to tackle the 2011-2012 free agency and keep salary cap to target would be free agent Deron Williams, a native of Dallas. Williams too had made his intentions clear about leaving the Nets and possibly signing with the Mavericks at the end of the 2011-2012 season. However, when it came time for the Mavericks to sell their team to the all star point guard, Cuban sent head coach Rick Carlisle, President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson and front office assistant Michael Finley to meet with him. And Williams says that there were some questions on his mind about the future of the team that perhaps Cuban himself could have answered better.
"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. 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,” said Williams.
Cuban was pursuing Williams strongly through his agent since the beginning of free agency on July 1st, but his absence from the crucial meeting may have made a huge difference. The Brooklyn Nets, on the other hand, traded for Joe Johnson and re-signed Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace to show their seriousness and plans for the future of the franchise, and Williams was sold to the idea.
The Mavericks rebounded by adding Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, O.J. Mayo, Dahntay Jones and Darren Collison to the team and Cuban later said he is more happy with how the team looks now as compared to if he had signed Williams. The Mavericks still have the salary cap to pursue free agents next summer, but Cuban says that he wants to develop and grow the core of the present team, adding more pieces around Dirk Nowitzki so that he has the support to go for one more championship run before he reaches the twilight of his prime.
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