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Los Angeles Clippers Kidnap DeAndre Jordan, Pissing Off Mark Cuban

By Matt Zaffina
Published on: 09:04 PST, Jul 15, 2015

Whether or not you were following along to the first week of the NBA’s free agency, odds are you know something that rarely happens occurred. A free agent, DeAndre Jordan in this case, gave a verbal agreement to the Dallas Mavericks for a max deal worth four years and around $80 million, but spurned the Mavericks and re-signed with the team that he has called home since he was drafted in 2008, the Los Angeles Clippers.

All of the drama that surrounded this situation unfolded on Twitter, with what seemed like an all-out war involving both players and coaches from around the league. When word came out that Clippers’ players and coaches were shacked up in Jordan’s house, awaiting the end of what is known as the NBA’s “moratorium,” where players cannot physically sign a contract, things got interesting.

Starting with the tweets from notable players signaling their means of transportation to reach Jordan, the Twitter war encompassed all spectrums of the NBA. Players and management not even remotely involved in the ordeal, including the Warriors’ own Marreese Speights and Assistant GM Kirk Lacob, as well Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen, all chimed in on Twitter. This sort of fiasco is exactly what Twitter was made for, but this may be the first time in history that players got involved in the antics, to the point of mockery when it came to players not involved. Heck, even Muhammad Ali chimed in!

Whether you preferred the emoji war from players such as Chris Paul and Chandler Parsons, or you preferred Blake Griffin’s live tweeting from Jordan’s residence, there was material for everyone to enjoy that night. To go along with the social media battles between players, word came out that Jordan was unresponsive to Mavericks personnel which sparked utter hilarity from people mocking Mark Cuban and what his actions at the time might have been.

While Jordan’s actions and the way in which he handled everything can undoubtedly be questioned, none of the actions of the Clippers personnel was illegal. In fact, the moratorium period actually has little to do with prolonging the actual signing of free agents, but rather is set in place in order for the league to organize its finances and set the salary cap for the upcoming season.

While this sort of thing is uncommon, it is not unheard of. Back in 1999 a similar, yet backwards, sort of event happened involving Antonio McDyess. As opposed to his prior team “holding him hostage,” the Denver Nuggets who McDyess had agreed to sign with kept him in private away from the Phoenix Suns players and management in an effort to make sure McDyess honored his verbal agreement with Denver.

It must be said again that while all of this is somewhat unheard of, it was in no way illegal or against any of the NBA’s free agency rules. However, the most interesting part of this saga is the effect it had on the franchises involved.

While the Dallas Mavericks were hoping to land Jordan to secure a couple more years of contention with aging superstar Dirk Nowitzki, many around the league do not believe that the addition of Jordan would have lifted the Mavericks into title contention, but rather would have put them in the middle of the pack in the Western Conference.

Jordan’s final decision speaks volumes not only about the issues with the league’s moratorium period, but also to the impact one player can have on an entire organization. While it can be said that Jordan has the right to do what he wants, his credibility around the league has surely taken a hit. The next time he becomes a free agent, as early as after the 2017-18 season, be sure that Jordan’s ability to sign anywhere other than Los Angeles will be hindered because of the way these events transpired.

[Image via bloomberg.com]

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