Dallas Mavericks minority stakeholder Mark Cuban denied the organization ran afoul of any NBA rules when it re-signed Dirk Nowitzki in 2014.
Appearing on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, Cuban called it “nonsense” that a production company he co-owned purchased a documentary about Nowitzki for way above market value as a way to circumvent the salary cap.
Cuban was once again a guest on Torre’s podcast to push back against the idea Los Angeles Clippers team governor Steve Ballmer knowingly paid star Kawhi Leonard through a sponsorship deal with Aspiration.
Starting at the 1:23:15 mark of the episode, Torre pivots to what some fans labeled a “sweetheart deal” between the Mavericks and Nowitzki in 2014.
The franchise legend took a massive pay cut as his salary fell from $22.7 million in 2013-14 to under $8 million the following year. Torre reported he turned down max offers from other teams, and his below-market contract allowed Dallas to land Chandler Parsons that summer.
Cuban asserted that Nowitzki “wanted Tim Duncan money,” a reference to how the San Antonio Spurs star took less toward the end of his run there.
The salary cap had remained around $58 million from 2010-14 and only rose to $63.1 million for 2014-15. At that time, aging stars such as Nowitzki and Duncan were incentivized to sign smaller contracts so their teams would have more flexibility to land other players.
This is where Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot comes in.
Magnolia Pictures, which Cuban co-owned, purchased the distribution rights, and some theorized the transaction was a way to give Nowitzki the money he had had on the table from other teams.
Torre confirmed the Magnolia deal actually totaled $100,000.
Even if the Mavs did violate NBA rules, it had little effect. They lost in the first round of the 2015 and 2016 playoffs, and then they missed the postseason altogether for three straight years.
But Torre and Cuban made it clear the conspiracy theories about Nowitzki’s 2014 return to Dallas were just that.
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