National Basketball Association

Doc Rivers: DeAndre Jordan owes Mark Cuban nothing

Published Jul. 16, 2015 6:38 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Steve DelVecchio

When DeAndre Jordan called Doc Rivers to inform him that he was having second thoughts about leaving the Los Angeles Clippers, you can probably guess what Rivers said. It definitely wasn’t anything along the lines of “you can’t do that to Mark Cuban.”

There has been plenty of talk about Jordan breaking the unwritten rules of NBA free agency, but Rivers doesn’t want to hear it. During an interview with ESPN’s Colin Cowherd this week, Doc was asked if Jordan owes Cuban an apology.

“That’s silly, in my opinion. I don’t think anyone’s owed anything,” he said, via Nina Mandell of USA Today. “I didn’t get a call from DJ when he decided to leave, I got a call from his agent. And we had a two-year relationship. So that part, I was amused by.

“But when DJ and I finally talked, he said it. ‘Coach I want to come back.’ So once we had the discussion, I knew we were back in [the] ballgame obviously and I thought we would get him. But unfortunately it played out in front of everybody.”

Jordan reserves the right to change his mind with such an important career decision, but he could have done a better job of keeping Cuban and the Mavericks in the loop. After verbally committing to them, he could have been honest instead of ignoring Cuban for two days.

The only apology that we know of from Jordan came on Twitter, and Cuban had no interest in accepting it. Apparently Rivers feels that was more than enough.

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