Devon Harris scored 41 points and contributed 13 assists in the Nets’ 121-97 rout of Dallas last night at the Izod Center, a humiliating return visit for Mavs PG Jason Kidd and an opportunity for whatever Nets fans hung around for garbage time to chant, “Thank You, Cuban!” Over in the Dallas locker room, the New York Daily News’ Julian Garcia found the visitors were less than amused.
After the game, I asked Kidd if he heard the chants about Mark Cuban and he responded, “When they were talking about his dancing?”
Moments later, someone asked a follow-up question about that topic and Kidd said, “What’s that got to do with me? You answer that question. Ask Cuban. Did you ask Cuban? Ask him.”
So we did. And here’s what the Mavericks owner said:
“I guess when you don’t care about your own team you talk about someone on the other team, right? I guess that’s what Nets fans are all about…I think the goal of everybody in New Jersey is to be a general manager. So I can understand why they want to share their expertise.”
Then calling it a “single game,” Cuban said he has no regrets about the deal and that he’s not surprised at how well Harris has played for the Nets.
“No. They built the offense around him. The kid can score. That’s what he does,” Cuban said. “When he’s like that he’s very comparable to Allen Iverson. That’s the way he’s playing. He deserves a lot of credit; he’s a great kid. But he just fills a different role than we felt we needed when we made the trade. We have a lot of scorers. We have a lot of shooters. So it’s different. We don’t run an offense where he would just dominate the ball. It is what it is.”