Cubes! Nellie! Let’s Hug It Out!

    To this day, a full 20 years later, if I ask Jerry Jones who first created the notion of the famous Cowboys trade of Herschel Walker, Jerry will say it was Jerry. He will identify agent Peter Johnson as the person with whom he conversed. He will tell you where they were in California when the conversation occurred. He will even describe where he was standing, near a large tree.

   To this day, a full 20 years later, if I ask Jimmy Johnson who first created the notion of the famous Cowboys trade of Herschel Walker, Jimmy will say it was Jimmy. He will identify Dave Wannstedt as the assistant with whom he conversed. He will tell you where they were in Valley Ranch when the conversation occurred. He will even describe that day’s weather while they were on a lunchtime jog.

   And neither man will necessarily be lying. … as is the case with Mark Cuban and Don Nelson and the court-testimony revelations that, in terms of who is right and who is wrong and who made the smart moves and who made the dumb moves and who is upright and who is petty … are “revelations’’ that reveal less than you think they do.

    This is old news, in two senses. For those of us who closely follow the Mavs, it is “old’’ dating back to October 2006, when Nelson first filed for money he said he was owed. Or maybe it is “old’’ all the way back to 2003, when Nellie wanted a new contract and Cuban waited, using that desire as a motivational tool for that season, before giving the coach an extension.

   It is also “old’’ in the second sense because it is old as the hills, this idea of two powerful people wishing to control the direction of a company (or a marriage, or any sort of relationship). It is, in fact, as old as relationships themselves.

   And when the relationship ends … but the bitterness remains … and six or seven million bucks hang in the balance?

   Little wonder that there are two sides to every story. Little wonder that memory fades. Little wonder that the “good moves’’ were orchestrated by “me’’ and the “bad’’ moves where orchestrated by “the other guy.’’

   So who was in charge of the 2004 Draft? It depends on whether you want to take the blame for considering Pavel Podkolzine at No. 5 or whether you want to take the credit for selecting Devin Harris at No. 5.

   And what was the deciding factor in not playing a hobbled Dirk Nowitzki against San Antonio in the 2003 Western Conference Finals? And what was the right decision? It depends on whether you believe the doctors’ official diagnosis, or whether you believe Nellie’s “fatherly’’ diagnosis.

   Raef LaFrentz? Antoine Walker? Erick Dampier? Steve Nash? One side says transactions involving those guys are the fault of the other side. Meanwhile, Nellie points out that Josh Howard was “his’’ draft pick.

   Is any of this information blantantly dishonest? Not necessarily. Two sides to every story. Fading memories. Stubbornness. Money.

   Is all of this information accurate? You are a fool to insist that because it’s “under oath,’’ the credibility here is foolproof. This is still a “game’’ of sorts to some of the people involved; Cuban admitted as much back in 2006, when it was ruled that he should pay Nellie. Cuban said then that it was all worth it to lose the case if only to have Nelson’s chicanery out in the open.

   And Nellie? In these documents, right there before God and everybody, he portrayed himself as just an “old pig farmer,’’ chuckled (probably charmingly) while admitting he’d broken a few rules here and there, and had little problem saying horrible things about the NBA work of his son, Donnie.

    To me, that’s the only tragic part of all this. Two businessmen fighting? Big whoop. One of them wanting to win the fight so badly that he would pretend that on the week of the draft that the worthiness of “some big Russian’’ was a product of his own son’s idiocy? It’s easy to say that now. But one doesn’t need a long memory to know that P-Pod had been considered a legit prospect by the Mavs and others. Or that “some big Russian’’ was eventually drafted for Nellie’s Mavs, anyway, just 16 slots after No. 5.

    Podkolzine is a punch line only in retrospect. Smart basketball people know that. Nellie knows that.

    Do you remember?

    Here is a collection of 2003 NBA Mock Drafts.

   I know, I know. It’s funny to look back and see all the mistakes. Especially all the mistakes made involving 7-5 guys from foreign countries with goofy names that might cause a judge, a jury and an audience to giggle.

   But at the time?

   CollegeHoopsNet projected P-Pod to be drafted 13^th overall. Hoopsworld projected P-Pod to go 11^th. So did ESPN. NBADraft.net thought he’d go 10^th.  Sports Illustrated said “He could go as high as top six.’’ InsideHoops thought Pavel Podkolzine would be selected … at No. 5.

   So it’s funny now. But Don Nelson KNOWS it wasn’t funny then. P-Pod as a high first-rounder was not a joke at the time. To pretend otherwise in order to get some money? To pretend in a courtroom setting that P-Pod was such a joke that Nellie only knew him as "some big Russian''? To pretend before an unknowing judge that Don Nelson certainly wouldn't be the sort of man to spend valuable draft picks on freak-show big men with foreign or unusual backgrounds ... because what are the odds that a judge or a jury would've ever heard of Manute Bol, Shawn Bradley, Wang ZhiZhi or Chris Anstey?

   Meh.

    But ... To pretend otherwise and to force his own son to fall on a 7-foot-5 Podkolzine-sized sword?

  Tragic.

   But that’s how badly some of these people want to win this “game.’’

   I am not outraged by any of this. I’ve been in conflicts. I’ve been married. I’ve been divorced. I’ve seen this sort of conduct and I’ve engaged in this sort of conduct. (In fact, next time you and your wife get in an argument, hit “record’’ on a tape recorder and once you cool down, see if you don’t sound as sadly and angrily desperate to be right as Cuban and Nellie do.)

    I am not outraged by any of this. I’ve lived through Jimmy and Jerry. I was there every day. And it was a constant turf war. I wrote a story quoting Jerry saying Troy Aikman would be healthy enough to play on Sunday; Jimmy went nuts, at me, Troy and Jerry. Jimmy created a trade to send Alexander Wright to the Raiders and Jerry went nuts, calling the league to remind them that Jimmy did not have unilateral authority to make deals.

   That turf war was about everything, big and small, from Troy Aikman to Alexander Wright.

   Just like this turf war is about everything, big and small, from Dirk Nowitzki to Pavel Podkolzine.

   How else to explain a courtroom debate over the intensity of a hug?

   Nellie exited as coach and general manager on March 19, 2005. He was to remain as a consultant, and when all was agreed upon, the two men hugged. In court, Cuban said Nellie “didn’t hug me back.’’

    To which Nellie replied, “I don’t know. Who cares?’’

    Well-played, sir. Dismissively laugh off such a silly and unmanly debate. Well-played … until one reviews Nellie’s earlier arbitration deposition, in which Nelson makes it a point to state that it was he who initiated the hug and Cuban who did not reciprocate.

    Who cares? Both of them.