Mark Cuban explains DeAndre Jordan saga to employess (Video)
Mark Cuban took the high road when discussing the Dallas Mavericks’ failed attempt at signing DeAndre Jordan.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was not happy how things turned out two nights ago, when DeAndre Jordan shunned Dallas by backing out of his agreement to possibly sign with them. Instead, Jordan chose to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. However, when it was time to explain the “Jordan saga” to his employees, Cuban said “he was very levelheaded.”
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After going through what Cuban did, I commend him for not being discouraged and talking it out publicly. On Thursday, Cuban appeared at Southern Methodist Unversity to speak to the graduates of the inaugural class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars program and in the process, when into a bit more detail about the Jordan situation. Cuban was asked by one of the graduates, how he is handling a major setback, and what he says to his front office at times like this.
We all know that whenever Cuban doesn’t like something he sees, or what other people are doing wrong, he will always give a combative answer. This time, it was more like an experienced and composed leader, rather than his combative and fiery personality, which many graduates were probably expecting.
Here is Mark Cuban’s full conversation on DeAndre Jordan:
"“The conversations that we had today — it’s over. There’s nothing you can do about it. You think for a second, ‘Is there anything I can change?’ You think for another second, ‘What have I learned so I can do it differently next time?’ Then you move forward and say ‘What are our options?’ I am a big believer you have to re-earn your business every single day. You have to look to see whether or not you need to reinvent your business every day. Because there is someone out there. There is some 8-year-old, 12-year-old going to UT, SMU, all these great things I just talked about, this great talent, they are out there trying to kick your butt. And if I am going to stay ahead, whether it is the NBA or any of my other companies, I have to keep on moving forward. That’s the way it is with the Mavericks. We have this big, tall German [Dirk Nowitzki] who is pretty good and he is still around. And we signed Wes Matthews. We have been fortunate to this point in my 15 years there. We have great leadership, a great team, and we are going to keep on moving forward.”"
The Dallas community and their players don’t deserve to be “burned” by Jordan’s actions. All of this could’ve been handled differently. Jordan should have at least shown some respect and and told Mark Cuban what he was feeling. Cuban would have been fine with that. Even though Chandler Parsons was so close to luring Jordan to Dallas, he did a class act by not downplaying Jordan’s decision and did his best to make Jordan feel wanted in his hometown.
Let’s hope that Cuban’s appearance at SMU and talking with the graduates, helped him to move on from this situation and only focus on his team.
(h/t Yahoo Finance)
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