NBA wouldn’t honor an official contract for Tony Romo
By Colton Lowe
Commissioner Adam Silver wouldn’t sign off for the Dallas Mavericks to sign Tony Romo to an official contract.
Mark Cuban made headlines this week by signing Tony Romo to a one-game contract that would allow Romo to suit up for the Dallas Mavericks final home game of the season. It wouldn’t be the first time a sports team has honored a former player or celebrity by signing them to a faux contract like this, but what we didn’t know was that Mark Cuban actually wanted Romo to get into the game.
Cuban told reporters that he wanted to sign Romo to an official 10 game contract, but “the powers that be, decided otherwise”. When he pitched the idea to commissioner Adam Silver, Cuban said “I told him what I was going to do and said, ‘Fine me if you don’t like it.” Obviously, there’s more to getting someone a real contract than just signing on the dotted line and logistically, it could of never happened.
“Signing him and stuff like that, would have been too much for a lot of reasons. No. 1, he’s a football athlete that’s not ready to play in an NBA game. That’s very risky. No. 2, to sign a guy with all of our requirements from a physical standpoint with the hours and hours of screening and all that kinds of other stuff, it just wasn’t worth going there. And that’s not really what this is about,” said Mavs’ coach Rick Carlisle, via ESPN.
Nonetheless, it didn’t stop Cuban and the Mavericks from honoring the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback for Tuesday night’s game. The highlights started early in the day when a video of Romo dropping dimes in practice surfaced on social media. From there, Romo took part in an official team photo.
Before the game, Tony showed off some more of his hoop skills when he crossed over his temporary teammate Devin Harris during pregame shoot around. Finally, the celebration was capped off with Tony Romo being introduced in the starting line-up in front of a packed American Airlines Center.
Once the game tipped off, Romo took his spot on the bench next to Cuban. Toward the final minutes of Tuesday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, Romo did make a run for the scorers table to check in before Cuban ultimately stopped him. Cuban joked that he couldn’t let Tony to go in because he hadn’t stretched yet.
It sure would have been fun to see what Romo could have done if he indeed was able to get into the game. He was actually a very good high school player, so it’s not like he would have been completely out of his element. And frankly, I don’t think anyone would have been playing too hard against him as last night’s play resembled more of a scrimmage than an actual game.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t about playing time, it was about celebrating Tony Romo’s career and giving the people of Dallas a real chance to say goodbye.
“Tony didn’t get a chance to finish out his career the way everybody that loves him as a Dallas Cowboy would have liked. He didn’t get to leave the field the way he would of liked,” Cuban said. “This was really a chance to show tribute.” It was a night that Romo will never forget and as a fan myself, it was a great way to pay homage to a real Dallas star.