Shawn Marion is a four-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA performer. He is one of the league’s most athletic and versatile players, which is why TNT’s Kenny Smith nicknamed him “The Matrix” early in his rookie season. As a testament to his versatility, he has led the league in steals twice and has finished in the top 10 in rebounding six times.
The peak of Marion’s career came in Phoenix, as he thrived in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system. But Marion was an All-Star before D’Antoni took over in Phoenix. The guy can flat out play.
After spending last season in Miami and Toronto, Marion is now with the Dallas Mavericks, joining Jason Kidd, Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki for what owner Mark Cuban hopes will be a title run. Marion sat down with The Scores Report to talk about his new team, his prowess on the offensive glass, and why the Suns traded him away.
TSR: Thanks for chatting with The Scores Report, Shawn. We just spoke with your former teammate, Dwyane Wade, a couple of weeks ago. He seems like a really nice guy.
SM: Yeah, he’s my man.
TSR: I’d first like to ask you about joining the Dallas Mavericks. How do you think you’ll fit in?
SM: I think I’ll fit in very well.
TSR: What made you pick the Mavs?
SM: J-Kidd and Dirk tried to get me down there for like over a year now. But I wasn’t able to go directly to them, so they had to make some maneuvers and work out a sign and trade. That’s what it was.
TSR: How do you think the team will change now that you’re a Mav? Dallas was in the middle of the pack in terms of pace last season – do you see the team pushing the ball more to best utilize your skills?
SM: I think we’ll do a little bit of everything. I’m just going to come in and try to help the team in every aspect of the game, and that’s it really. That sums it up.
This is probably only interesting to NBA nuts and Mavs fans, but the transcript from the Cuban/Nelson arbitration hearing has been released, and there are some interesting tidbits of information. Like the story of how the Mavs almost drafted Pavel Podkolzin at #5 (instead of Devin Harris) in 2004.
But as June’s draft loomed, Nelson testified that he had no reason to believe he wouldn’t continue to lead that process, noting that he had selected standout Josh Howard with the 29th pick of the previous year’s draft.
On draft day, the Mavericks acquired the No. 5 pick from Washington. Nelson testified that as he settled into the draft room to talk to team scouts, he was surprised to hear son Donnie, the team’s vice president of operations, discuss taking “this big Russian” with the No. 5 pick.
The player’s name is redacted from the arbitration transcript, but it is clear that Nelson was referring to 7-foot-5 Pavel Podkolzin.
“I said, ‘Donnie, I cannot take that Russian five,’ ” Don Nelson testified. “And he asked me if I would go in the men’s room. I went in the men’s room with him, and he informed me that I wasn’t in charge of the draft.
“And I said, ‘Oh, really? Well, who is?’ He said, ‘I am.’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s nice of somebody to tell me.’
“And I said, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then as your father I’m asking you don’t draft [redacted].’ … And Donnie didn’t. He took Devin Harris.”
Later in that draft, the Mavericks sent a future first-round pick to Utah for the rights to No. 21 pick Podkolzin – who never played a regular-season game for Dallas.
The article also discusses how the Mavs failed to match Phoenix’s offer to Steve Nash, and how that affected the franchise.
Reports persist that Odom has been offered deals spanning three and four seasons in length from the Lakers, but that differs sharply from every bankable indication we’ve received.
The Lakers’ best offer to Odom, so far, tops out at $27 million over three seasons. The expectation among rival teams remains that the sides will eventually come to terms.
This makes more sense. I don’t know why Odom would turn down a four-year deal from the Lakers worth $36 million to consider a five-year deal worth $34 million from the Heat. If the Lakers are only offering three years, then the total value of the contract is about $24 million after state taxes, so Odom could elect to go with the security of the extra $10 million in the Miami deal.
This, coupled with the Lakers’ decision to pull their offer from the table, might convince Odom to head to Miami and play for the mid-level. Pat Riley also indicated that the Heat are trying to work out a sign-and-trade for Odom, though it’s not clear what players would have to be involved to get the Lakers to agree to take on the extra salary. Udonis Haslem? Michael Beasley?
The deal, according to sources, calls for the Mavericks to acquire Marion and Kris Humphries from Toronto and Greg Buckner from Memphis, with Marion to receive a five-year contract worth an estimated $39 million. Buckner has had two previous stints with the Mavericks but is likely to be released, sources said.
The Grizzlies will land Jerry Stackhouse from Dallas and a substantial cash payment to buy out Stackhouse’s contract. Only $2 million of Stackhouse’s $7.25 million salary next season is guaranteed, as long as he is waived by Aug. 10.
The Raptors will receive Devean George and Antoine Wright from the Mavericks, while also preserving their $5.9 million mid-level exception for the coming season by turning their acquisition of Turkoglu — who is getting a five-year deal worth an estimated $53 million — into a sign-and-trade as opposed to an outright signing. Assembling the trade this way could also enable Toronto to re-sign Carlos Delfino, after it appeared that the Raptors would have to renounce Delfino to help make room for the Turkoglu signing.
The Magic, meanwhile, were motivated to join in the trade because their participation, as opposed to merely letting Turkoglu walk, will create a valuable trade exception they can use in future deals worth around $7 million.
Mark Cuban is arguably the most polarizing owner in the league, but he isn’t afraid to try to make his team better. Whether it’s an ill-advised Jason Kidd-for-Devin Harris swap, the mid-level signing of Marcin Gortat or working out this sign-and-trade to land Marion, Cuban has always been willing to do what’s necessary to win.
With these moves, Dallas can start Marion at small forward next to Dirk Nowitzki and shift Josh Howard to shooting guard, with Sixth Man Award winner Jason Terry staying in a bench role. The Mavericks also believe that they will have a strong small-ball unit when they elect not to play Gortat or Erick Dampier, featuring Howard at small forward, Marion at power forward and Nowitzki at center.
$8 million per year for five years is a lot to pay for a 31-year-old, but Cuban knows that Nowitzki’s window is closing and the Mavericks’ time is now. Dallas now has a formidable starting lineup — Kidd, Howard, Marion, Nowitzki and Gortat — that has features four All-Stars, with Terry, J.J. Barea, Matt Carroll and Dampier coming off the bench. It will be interesting to see if the Mavs are able (or willing) to retain Brandon Bass, who is a free agent this summer.
Sources told ESPN.com that Kidd, 36, will receive a 3-year, fully-guaranteed contract worth in excess of $25 million.
Kidd elected to stay in Dallas in the face of a hard push from the New York Knicks, who last week offered Kidd the most they could ($19 million over three years).
Some say that Kidd flirted with the Knicks only to strengthen his bargaining position with the Mavericks, but I think Dallas knew that someone would make him a mid-level offer and that they’d have to come a little stronger. Kidd was still an elite point guard as recently as the 2006-07 season, but over the past two seasons his athleticism has degraded somewhat, and he now gets by on guile more than speed or quickness.
This seems like a fruitless endeavor for the Mavs. Locking up Kidd for another three years will help keep Dallas in the playoffs, but they are a far cry from being a serious contender in the West. Dirk Nowitzki can opt out next summer (but may not), Josh Howard is signed through 2011 and Jason Terry is signed through 2012. This core blew its chance for a title in the 2006 Finals when Dwyane Wade went on a rampage (with more than a little help from the refs), and then overreacted by trading budding star Devin Harris away for Kidd. If Harris were still on the roster, the Mavs’ prospects would be brighter.
Mark Cuban hoped to put his feud with Kenyon Martin (and Martin’s mom) behind him when he apologized on his blog for referring to Martin as a thug after Game 3 in Dallas. But Martin doesn’t think Cuban’s apology is good enough.
“He’s a coward,” Martin said about Cuban, according to HoopsHype.com. “He couldn’t face it. You all read the only apology that he’s made [on his blog].
“The world got to see it before the person who it was meant for got to see it. That tells you how that goes. I ain’t never known nobody apology to somebody through other people.”
For his part, Cuban called his blog apology a mistake, telling the Web site in an e-mail that he regretted not having contacted Martin’s mother in person and in a timely fashion.
“I still intend to apologize to Ms. Moore,” Cuban wrote of Lydia Moore, Martin’s mother. “I made a mistake and will keep my commitment.”
“I would also like to know if Kenyon is going to take responsibility for his actions rather than hiding behind ‘no comment,’ ” Cuban wrote. “Will he apologize to the wife of our staff member that he called a [expletive] fat pig’ immediately after Game 3? Will he apologize to fans that he threatened to, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘[expletive] beat the [expletive] down’ during Game 4?
“Or to the fans he walked by after Game 4, [Martin] cursed and gave the finger to? Will he take responsibility for what he said and did? Is there some reason he has not?”
This isn’t a huge deal, but it probably isn’t going away until the two speak to each other. They both like to talk to the press, so reporters will keep asking them about the status of the feud, which is only going to add fuel to the fire.
After the hectic finish to Game 3, where many believe that the officials blew a call that might have saved the game for the Mavs, Mark Cuban got into an exchange with Kenyon Martin’s mother and referred to her son as a “thug.”
During the postgame chaos after Saturday’s Nuggets-Mavericks game, Dallas owner Mark Cuban had a brief but heated confrontation with Lydia Moore, the mother of Denver’s Kenyon Martin, who was seated near the tunnel that leads to the Mavs’ locker room.
Cuban said Sunday by e-mail that when he walked off the court, a fan was screaming about the Nuggets being “thugs,” so Cuban said to Martin’s mother: “That includes your son.”
According to Martin’s agent, Brian Dyke, Cuban spotted Moore amid numerous Nuggets fans and said, unprovoked, “Your son is a punk.” Regardless of what insult was stated, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, “The situation on the floor postgame is being reviewed.”
Cuban was visibly angry after Game 3 because he believed the officials missed numerous key calls down the stretch, notably the noncall on Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, who avoided a potential foul and calmly hit the winning 3-pointer with one second left.
Cuban said by e-mail he knew Martin’s mother, because after a previous game that Denver won, she had approached him and made trash-talk-type comments.
The NBA released a statement that said that the officials missed an intentional foul in the waning seconds that led to Anthony’s game-winning shot, but when I first saw the play, I didn’t think there was enough contact to warrant an automatic whistle. That kind of contact happens on virtually every play in an NBA game. It was a judgment call, and the officials apparently made the decision to let Wright’s contact on Anthony go. Wright didn’t wrap him up or make it completely obvious that he was trying to take a foul, so there was room for error.
The other question I have is did the Mavs notify each official that their plan was to commit a foul on the inbounds pass? If the refs were aware of what the Mavs were trying to do, it would have been more likely that they would have made the call. Here’s the final play, in case you missed it:
As for Cuban, it’s not a big surprise that he got into a heated exchange with Martin’s mom, or any Nuggets fan for that matter. At heart, Cuban is first and foremost a fan of his team and fans don’t always behave in a professional or appropriate manner. Should he be fined? Yes, assuming there is a code of conduct for team owners.
After the Mavericks were humiliated Monday by an Oklahoma City team playing without its top two scorers, Cuban lashed out, and for the first time indicated that there are no untouchables on the team.
“It’s only one game, which I keep reminding myself of today. But let’s just say I wasn’t happy with our preparation, execution or effort. Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each player will decide their future with the Mavericks.
“If each player can’t take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season. The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back. I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night.
“This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that’s only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it’s important.”
Cuban’s comments are totally justified. The Thunder played without Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, starting a lineup of Russell Westbrook, Kyle Weaver, Thabo Sefolosha, Nick Collison and Nenad Krstic. Ouch.
This is the first time that Cuban has indicated that Dirk Nowitzki might not be untouchable anymore. He’s exactly right about how there are nights when the ball doesn’t go through the hoop or that the other team can’t miss, but the effort should always be there. These guys are making millions of dollars to play a game, and while the rest of the economy is tanking and people across of the country are losing their jobs, the least the Mavs can do is play as hard as they can while they’re out on the court. Anything less is an embarrassment and a slap in the face of their fan base.
Long-time Cubs fan (and billionaire) Tom Ricketts is the winning bidder for the Chicago Cubs and if the sale goes through (which would also include a 25 percent interest in a regional sports network), he would buy the club from the Tribune Co. for around $900 million.
Woo-ho.
Ricketts seems like a solid choice considering he’s a long-time fan and would likely try a hell of a lot harder than the Tribune Co. did in putting a winner on the field. (Outside of the years when the Tribune spent money on free agents in efforts to up the value of the club so they could eventually sell it, of course.)
But Ricketts is not Mark Cuban.
Had Major League Baseball allowed Cuban to buy the Cubs, he would have stopped at nothing to put a winner on the field. He wouldn’t have gone through years of mediocrity before trying to build a World Series contender – he would have tried to win from Day 1.
So the question becomes: Why are baseball owners so petrified of Cuban? He would presumably bring excitement to the game, he would challenge the Yankees in terms of spending and he would be a hero in Chicago, which oh-by-the-way is the type of big city market that baseball would love see make the World Series on a consistent basis so TV ratings would skyrocket.
I’ve always been under the assumption that owners didn’t want Cuban the owner because he would challenge the Yankees and therefore, smaller market teams wouldn’t make as much off the luxury tax as they would if the Bombers spent big all the time. But thanks to TSR teammate John Paulsen (who did a quick Google search because my dumbass didn’t think to), I realized that the money from the luxury tax (also called the ‘Competitive Balance Tax’) isn’t distributed to smaller market teams to promote competitive balance.
So therefore, it doesn’t matter if Cuban came in and spent as much as the Yankees because smaller market teams get paid from baseball’s revenue sharing program, which is completely independent from the luxury tax. (In fact, it would help smaller market teams if the Cubs’ revenue was close to the Yankees’ because they would get a bigger cut from the revenue sharing program.)
If owners keeping Cuban out has nothing to do with the luxury tax payout, then again – why treat him like the Ebola Virus? Below are two opinions as to why. There are probably more, but in my opinion, none bigger than the two below.
1. Baseball has become the “good ol’ boy” network in terms of its owners. Change is bad. And Mark Cuban owning the Cubs would be the epitome of change – radical change. He does everything first class with the Mavericks and he would presumably do the same with the Cubs. He would upgrade Wrigley Field, treat the players like kings and probably sit right behind home plate so he’s within earshot of the umpire. Baseball owners don’t want a young, hip outsider coming in and having the media focus be on him and the way he does things. He would rock the boat every chance he got, just like he does now in the NBA. Owners are supposed to sit in their seats or boxes and watch from afar. They’re not supposed to be in your face and as recognizable as Cuban is in the NBA.
2. MLB teams already have their hands full trying to keep up with the Yankees every offseason. If Cuban buys the Cubs, he would compete with the Evil Empire and drive up the price for free agents even more. The player’s union would love for Cuban to buy the Cubs, but the owners would rather deal with one monster than two. (Granted, the Mets and Red Sox compete with the Yankees’ spending on a consistent basis, too, but nothing compared to what Cuban would presumably do.)
Some might note that the owners also don’t want to be associated with someone, who, in November of last year was accused of insider trading. But don’t forget that Cuban was being turned away by MLB owners well before the SEC report came to light. And by the way, Cuban would have paid $1.3 billion for the Cubs, which is a good bit more than the $900 million Ricketts is ready to dole out. So it has nothing to do with money.
The bottom line is that baseball is seemingly making a mistake. Cuban would do a lot for the Cubs’ organization and baseball on a whole, but for whatever reason he’ll never have the chance to become an owner. It’s sad really, because in the end, baseball fans are the ones who suffer the most.
