Another wrinkle in the Kidd to Mavs trade! League to look at Stackhouse's comments NEW ORLEANS – As the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks feverishly worked to convince Devean George to join in the trade for Jason Kidd on Thursday, there suddenly loomed another issue that could obliterate the proposed deal: the loose lips of Jerry Stackhouse. The NBA will investigate the possibility the Mavericks and Stackhouse violated league rules with a pre-arranged agreement for the forward to return to Dallas after reaching a contract buyout in New Jersey and sitting out the 30-day waiting period, sources said. Several league sources said the NBA will consider forbidding Stackhouse to re-sign with the Mavericks this season as punishment for public comments the forward made on Wednesday that suggested tampering could’ve occurred. If it comes to that, the deal is dead. Dallas owner Mark Cuban wouldn’t complete the trade for Kidd without a belief that he could eventually bring Stackhouse back this season. Ultimately, sources say, Mavericks management decided that losing Stackhouse would be too hard of a hit to the Mavericks’ depth, too steep a price to pay for Kidd. For the Mavericks, the trouble started when Stackhouse, 33, gave an interview to the Associated Press on Wednesday that suggested there was a plan for how his trade, buyout and eventual re-signing with Dallas would unfold. Stackhouse said that he was only part of the deal “to make the numbers work.” What’s more, he said, “I feel great. I get 30 days to rest then I’ll be right back. I ain’t going nowhere.” Even if George changes his mind on Friday about agreeing to waive his “Early Larry Bird Rights” and accept the trade to New Jersey, sources said the league office will not immediately approve the trade. With angry rival executives across the league expressing outrage over Stackhouse’s comments, as well as the NBA’s own issues and suspicions with the comments, Senior VP of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson is obligated to look deeper into the matter. The NBA doesn’t allow such pre-arranged agreements. The rest of the league is required to have a fair chance to sign Stackhouse in the 30 days before he’s eligible to re-sign with the Mavericks. It doesn’t help appearances that Stackhouse and Kidd share the same agent, Jeff Schwartz. When several league executives read Stackhouse’s comments on Wednesday, they were irate and privately promised to protest if Stackhouse ends up passing on league-wide offers and returns to the Mavericks. “It sounds like a side deal, doesn’t it?” one Eastern Conference executive said. “The league will have a lot of explaining to do if Stackhouse goes back to Dallas.” Another general manager said, “I thought it was the most blatant statement someone could make about a trade. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the league disallowed Stackhouse to go back to Dallas. Stackhouse is too impulsive and is prone to say stuff like that which could really end up hurting Dallas.” Finally, a third GM said, “It’s caused a lot of people to wonder how they could get away with that, how those kind of pre-existing arrangements can be allowed.” For now, it is clear the trade that would send Kidd and Malik Allen to Dallas for George, Stackhouse, Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop and Maurice Ager, two first-round picks and $3 million is stuck. Before the Mavericks’ 109-97 loss to the Suns in Phoenix on Thursday night, agent Mark Bartelstein insisted that his client hadn’t changed his mind about vetoing his trade to the Nets. “There’s nothing new,” Bartelstein said. “Right now, he’s just focusing on playing for the Mavericks.” Between now and next Thursday’s trade deadline, the Nets and Mavericks are exploring scenarios that still include George and a sign-and-trade with Keith Van Horn, but the Stackhouse case could make everything else irrelevant. Across the league, there’s a belief that Stackhouse revealed too much with this words and the NBA plans to take a hard look and ask the obvious question: Is there strong enough evidence of a pre-existing agreement between the Mavericks and Stackhouse that deserves punishment? If they league decides there is, and refuses to let him re-sign with the Mavericks, the results could be devastating for Dallas. No trade. No Kidd. It would be a steep price to pay for the loose lips of Jerry Stackhouse. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AtAsfeimj2gQgEnxAUi2f..8vLYF?slug=aw-stackhousesnag021508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As someone who hates the Mavericks with great passion, this week has brought me great joy! First a scrub like George sticks it to them and now Stackhouse's ego and loose lips are hopefully going to screw them out of resigning him. This is what Stackhouse gets for showing up the Rockets in their last game! Justice! Karma is a b****! I hope they can still work out a Kidd trade so that they can throw away their future for another loss in the first or second round!
I thought this would happen. Dallas should not be allowed to pull that kind of BS. That is just like cheating. GOOD RIDDANCE.
How is this any more than Stackhouse learning about his options? Whether it is discussed or not, it could play out this way if Stackhouse chooses for it to.
ha! time for a song and dance. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-h07aKVu80Y&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-h07aKVu80Y&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
That is stupid so because of stacks comments if they do the trade he wont be able to resign. If you get bought out you go where you want to and who wants you, how does it make sense to say you cant go back to the mavs if the nets buy you out. This is one thing I dont get about the NBA, why do other teams get mad and upset when another team improves through trades. YOU HAVE THE SAME CAPABILITIES!! This particularly bothers me with eastern conference teams, quit worrying about dallas LA and Phoenix and build up your poor excuse for a conference, so fans can enjoy a competitive Finals Series. Instead of the NBA Finals really being the Western Conference Finals where the winner gets to see how bad they can rout the "east champion" aka the "NBADL-east" (No offense to KING JAMES)
misleading thread title... err, misleading punctuation in thread title. it makes it sound as if Kidd is saying the trade is dead. didn't mean to be anal.
I wouldn't call it cheating. Cap restrictions make things odd, things must be done. Its not like anyone thought Stack would do otherwise, so him simply saying it makes it wrong now? Technically ya. But cheating? Meh...
yeah this is extremely weak on the league's part, like when they nixed the rockets-suns-nuggets barkley trade. it's okay for the grizzlies to sell gasol to the lakers but not for stackhouse to sign with his old team after his new one cuts him?
Losing Stackhouse is a small price if they add Kurt Thomas instead. That's Kidd plus a decent big man http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/351261_sonx14.html
Man this sucks, I was hoping for this deal to go through so we could run through the Mavs. They were giving up their entire bench for Kidd.
Be cool if Cleveland swooped in and got Kidd instead. Get LeBron some damned help out there already...
I knew Stackhouse was dumb, but man, he's way worse than just dumb This will do wonders for their chemistry! The Mavericks are the funniest team out there. They really are their worst enemy.
