DALLAS -- It’s not necessarily unusual for Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle to publicly challenge a player to improve his conditioning.
An apology a couple of days later? That’s certainly a first.
Carlisle never said sorry to Lamar Odom or Samuel Dalembert for letting the world know that they needed to get in better shape during past preseasons. Perhaps Chandler Parsons should be honored to be on the receiving end of a Carlisle apology.
Parsons clearly wasn’t thrilled with Carlisle’s comments Friday night about the $46 million forward needing to shed several pounds. But Parsons appreciated Carlisle apologizing for them, first in front of a team, then in a statement distributed to several reporters.
“It just shows what kind of guy he is,” said Parsons, a former second-round pick who prides himself on his work ethic. “We’re in this together. Everybody makes mistakes and he came to me as a man. We have a great relationship, but it’s in the past, and we’re going to move forward. It’s over with.”
Parsons intentionally bulked up over the summer to prepare to bang during spot duty at power forward. He reported to training camp at 235 pounds, 20 pounds heavier than his listed weight during his three seasons with the Houston Rockets.
Carlisle accurately noted that the Mavs consider Parsons’ ideal playing weight to be 225. But in hindsight, he could have delivered the message a bit more delicately. It’s not as if Parsons sat on the couch all summer eating Cheetos or deserves to be labeled as lazy, like Odom and Dalembert.
“I don’t think Chandler is fat and out of shape,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “I think that’s how it came over. Chandler’s point this summer was that he played a lot of 4 as a backup last year, and he just felt too skinny and got pushed around, so he built some upper-body strength and gained some weight on the upper body. But it’s not like he came in here with 25 percent body fat.
“So I think stuff was communicated through the media a little wrong. I think we’re past it.”
Mavs owner Mark Cuban chimed in on the situation.
“Rick’s smart," he said. "When he feels like somebody’s sensitive about something or he touched a nerve, he deals with it. He doesn’t run away from it. He doesn’t pretend it didn’t happen. It was no big deal. It’s a non-event.”
At this point, it’s a source of humor for the Mavs -– and their families.
Parsons made light of the situation by posing for a shirtless picture with a pouty face and posting it to Instagram on Saturday afternoon. Carlisle’s wife, Donna, told the coach that Parsons looked like he was in pretty good shape to her.
Carlisle joked that his punishment was that his wife and his daughter, Abby, are now following Parsons on Twitter and Instagram.
Cuban mocked the mini-controversy by dubbing it “Chubbygate.”
All involved believe this is just a minor stumble in the development of a strong player-coach relationship. There's a fat chance this leads to any lingering issues between Carlisle and Parsons.