The 2015 offseason was a crazy one for the Dallas Mavericks as they tried to acquire center DeAndre Jordan . Fresh off an impressive year as the NBA’s leading rebounder, Dallas saw him as the cornerstone to rebuild their roster.
The team was ecstatic when the Los Angeles Clippers star verbally committed to a four-year, $80 million deal. Mark Cuban and the Mavericks thought they had landed their guy—or so they thought, as they ended up in a recruitment battle they couldn’t win.
What went down
On July 8, several Clippers players and executives, including Chris Paul , Blake Griffin, and head coach Doc Rivers, flew to Houston to convince the center to reconsider. And convince him they did.
By the end of the night, the two-time All-Defensive First Team member re-signed with Los Angeles on a four-year, $88 million contract, leaving Cuban and the Mavericks blindsided. The former Mavs executive himself described the bizarre sequence of events.
“I go down to Houston where DeAndre is staying, and we’re supposed to line it all up,” Cuban said . “He told us yes, said yes, and we’re waiting in this hotel room and… we kept on waiting for DJ to show up, never did; we called him, never did; we got his address, drove by, and never answered, and that was it.”