Mark Cuban: Mavs never came close to trading Shawn Marion
By Mike Dyce
As the Dallas Mavericks pursued free agent Dwight Howard and other potential stars to better a underachieving and mediocre squad one of the pieces dangled in the trade market was Shawn Marion. His defensive play highlighted in the 2011 NBA Championship run has made him a desirable asset.
That led to lots of rumors about Marion being traded and where he might wind up, but Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said you shouldn’t believe anything you read about Dallas.
“Always know this about the Mavericks. If you’re reading about it, it’s not true because we will fire anybody who leaks,” Cuban said in a ESPN Radio interview, via the Dallas Morning News. “I’m the only person allowed to leak anything because there is a reason to be out if there is a reason for it to be out so if you’re reading about it, it’s not true. When we do trades, when we sign people, when we sign Monta, when we sign Jose, it was a surprise to everybody.”
Cuban even suggested a potential culprit in the rumors while claiming that they never “came close” to trading Marion this summer.
“The fact that his name was out there means some other teams were putting it out there to test the market. I’m not saying we didn’t take calls, and we didn’t have conversations about Shawn, but it had to be the right circumstance and the right decision, and it never came close.”