Dallas Mavericks small forward Chandler Parsons isn’t holding back about how he feels after DeAndre Jordan left his organization standing at the alter to go back to sunny L.A.:
“This is something that I’ve never seen in my career, and I know that it doesn’t happen very often,” Parsons told ESPN.com on Thursday. “When a man gives you his word and an organization his word, especially when that organization put in so much effort and I walked him through this process and was very, very open and willing to work with him, it’s just very unethical and disrespectful.”
On Tuesday, Jordan revealed to Parsons, via text message; that he was having second thoughts about his verbal commitment to the Mavericks, and then hosted head coach/team president Doc Rivers, owner Steve Ballmer, and players: Chris Paul, J.J. Reddick, Blake Griffin, and newcomer Paul Pierce at his Houston home.
Jordan has since signed back with the Clippers and in effect, all but destroyed the Dallas Mavericks plans for the upcoming season. Back when he first verbally committed to Dallas, other options remained for the Mavericks in case Jordan made this decision. But that time period has passed and the Mavericks are left to pick up the pieces and duct-tape a plan together.
Chandler Parsons went on to say Jordan was scared of the responsibility that would come with his star role in Dallas.
“He wasn’t ready to be a franchise player. He was scared,” Parsons said. “He was scared to take the next step in his career. There was no other reason other than that he was comfortable and he has friendships there. How you make a business decision like that is beyond me. How you ignore an owner like Mark who is in your hometown just waiting for a chance to talk to you is beyond me. I don’t think he made a mistake. I think he’ll be good in L.A. He’s got a good team, he’s got a great point guard, he’s got Blake, but I think he could have been a superstar in Dallas. He could have been the man in Dallas. Never in a million years did I think that this was even a possibility. I’ll still be friends with him, but I can’t get over the way that he’s put our entire franchise in jeopardy. It’s normal to get cold feet. It’s normal to get second thoughts, but you don’t back out of a commitment of this much magnitude this late in the game and just leave us high and dry.”
Parsons, and the Dallas Mavs have every right to be upset, but when it comes to professional sports contracts; NOTHING is legitimate until the ink is applied to the paper.
Although what DeAndre Jordan did was kind of jerk-ish, it was within his rights that all players agreed to in the CBA.
Cold world.
[h/t ESPN]
