Author illustration of Mark Cuban during the DeAndre Jordan NBA free agency saga
On the five-year anniversary of LeBron James‘ “The Decision” came an even mightier and stranger NBA free agency saga. DeAndre Jordan had reportedly all but signed with the Dallas Mavericks before suddenly changing his mind in what became essentially a reported siege.
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Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported it as if DeAndre Jordan was kidnapped and being held hostage, while others reported that he’d had a change of heart and decided to renege on his verbal agreement with the Mavs to stay with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Players couldn’t sign agreements with pen to paper until midnight eastern time, so a slew of Clips showed up at Jordan’s Houston home to convince him to stay in L.A., and as we know, a contract isn’t legally binding until ink meets that bottom line.
"Jordan’s decision to stay in Los Angeles comes five days after he reportedly had chosen to go to the Mavericks. In the following days, doubts crept into Jordan’s mind and he began to contemplate his decision. As the free agency moratorium began to near it’s end, though, he allowed the Clippers to swoop in and have another shot.Apparently it didn’t take long for the likes of Doc Rivers, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Steve Ballmer and JJ Redick to convince Jordan to stay. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the meeting was short-lived and then the group made way for some leisure time.–Cody Williams, Fansided"
ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported that Mark Cuban was driving around
Dallas
Houston frantically trying to find the reigning Defensive Player of the Year’s address. Let’s be real: If a guy with Mark Cuban’s money wanted to find you, he could.
The saga spawned untold amounts of hilarity that can be readily found on the internet, from memes to jokes and beyond. Blake Griffin may have won the night with his sneaky-smooth brand of humor:
Don't agree with the furniture layout but I'm not an interior designer. pic.twitter.com/23PNgQB88z
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin23) July 9, 2015
Alright everybody goodnight! pic.twitter.com/cME0rFR5LC
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin23) July 9, 2015
Meanwhile, DeAndre Jordan’s sudden bout of Stockholm Syndrome may have just given the Utah Jazz a big boost toward the 2016 NBA postseason.
While a few supposed the Phoenix Suns may sneak in, in Utah’s stead, the overwhelming majority of non-Jazz fans seemed to favor Utah’s trajectory over both of the Portland Trail Blazers — who lost basically everyone except Damian Lillard — and the Mavericks and Suns for the 2015-16 NBA sason.
DeAndre Jordan is doing the impossible: Making people feel bad for Mark Cuban.
— Steve Luhm (@sluhm) July 9, 2015
If you're a Utah Jazz fan watching all this DeAndre drama it has to make you feel a lot better about internal development.
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JeremiahJensen) July 9, 2015
While a few fans were upset about the NBA’s moratorium, and the time it gave DeAndre Jordan to change his mind, don’t expect any changes anytime soon: the NBA needs the time to set the projected cap as deals get done. And besides… wasn’t that the most free agency fun ever?!
Oh, and expect Rudy Gobert to be locked into a max deal as soon as he can be. And then the cap goes up AGAIN. Word is, Jazz fans have already started a gofundme account to keep Rudy in his house until he signs his pending new contract. Please send all donations to @Clintonite33…
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) July 9, 2015
The Clippers' actual meeting with DeAndre Jordan was short. The rest of the time was spent teaching Paul Pierce how to use emojis.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) July 9, 2015
Meanwhile, if you feel really bad for Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan dunking over Mark Cuban’s free agency you can always support his show Shark Tank by buying one of his tents.