Dallas Mavericks fans have had this date circled on their calendars since this season's NBA schedule was released.
DeAndre Jordan is coming to Dallas.
For a few days in July, that sentence made Mavs fans rejoice. Now, it causes cursing and snarls, because Jordan is just stopping by for one night with the Los Angeles Clippers, not sticking around Dallas for a decade or so as a franchise centerpiece.
"This is still the entertainment business at its core, and one of the fun things to do is come in and boo people," Mavs owner Mark Cuban said. "So we'll actively encourage it, and it'll be fun for fans."
A sellout crowd at the American Airlines Center will try to make Jordan feel its wrath, still stung by the center's stunning reversal in free agency. Mavs fans will get Cuban's back, calling out the big man who had the audacity to ignore the billionaire owner instead of giving Cuban one last chance to try to convince Jordan to follow through on his commitment.
The harsh truth, however, is that Jordan is just an easy target. The frustration of Mavs fans started long before this summer's soap opera. It's fueled by four agonizing offseasons of Dallas' front office trying -- and failing -- to hook a big fish after deciding not to keep the 2010-11 title roster together.
A look at those exasperating excursions:
2012: Deron Williams
Williams was a distant third on the list of potential summer targets the Mavs had in mind when Cuban made the controversial decision to prioritize creating salary-cap space over keeping the 2010-11 title roster intact. But Williams ended up being the only big fish in the 2012 pond after Chris Paul and Dwight Howard opted into the final seasons of their existing contracts.
There was such a significant drop-off after Paul and Howard that Cuban wasn't sure he really wanted Williams, a native of Dallas suburb The Colony who at the time was considered Paul's peer among the league's elite point guards.
That uncertainty prompted Cuban to passive-aggressively opt not to participate in the Mavs' recruiting pitch to Williams, claiming to be in California filming "Shark Tank" episodes. Williams cited Cuban's absence as a factor he opted to re-sign with the Nets and serve of the face of that franchise as it moved to Brooklyn.
"I think [Cuban] would have been able to answer a lot of the questions me and my agent have for him that really didn't get answered that day pertaining to the future," Williams told reporters during the next training camp. "And I think if he was there he would have been able to answer those questions a little bit better. It maybe would have helped me.
Cuban later acknowledged that he fibbed about the "Shark Tank" filming, using it as a convenient excuse to not woo Williams, although the Mavs fan base wasn't amused. Asked if he intentionally sabotaged Dallas' attempt to recruit Williams, Cuban joked about the "amazing" episode he filmed that day.
"He wasn't ready for being a franchise player. He was scared. He was scared to take the next step in his career."Chandler Parsons, on DeAndre Jordan's last-minute decision to re-sign with the Clippers
Cuban offered a much more serious answer when asked whether his presence during Dallas' pitch would have made a difference.
"Maybe," Cuban said. "You know, because I always think I can close the sale."
Cuban eventually did close the sale with Williams, who signed with the Mavs this summer for a mere fraction of a max salary after Brooklyn paid $27 million to buy him out of the final two years of his contract.
Summer salvage: "Keep the powder dry," was president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson's battle cry, as the Mavs put together the best temporary roster possible. Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, O.J. Mayo and Darren Collison were among the players the Mavs signed to one-year deals or acquired before the final seasons of their contracts.
By Dallas' standards, the season was a disaster, with the Mavs finishing 41-41 and failing to make the playoffs for the first time in a dozen years. The season, which started slow while Nowitzki recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery, will best be remembered for the bushy beards that symbolized the Mavs' mediocrity, as several players made a pact not to shave until they reached .500.
2013: Dwight Howard and Chris Paul
Cuban and the Mavs were all-in on the big-fish plan at this point. That was evident on draft night, when they cared more about dollars than draft picks. Cuban decided not to take the player Nelson liked at No. 13 (some Greek kid named Giannis Antetokounmpo), saving a six-figure sum by trading down twice and a total of five spots, needing to count every penny to be in position to offer a superstar a max contract.
The Mavs had a big pitch planned for Paul, hoping to sell him on trusting his career to Cuban over Donald Sterling, on choosing Dallas' championship culture instead of the Clippers' constant chaos. The Mavs never got a chance to officially make their case to Paul, who committed to sign a max contract with the Clippers before free agency began and didn't meet with any other teams.
It became a Dwight-or-doom summer for the Mavs at that point. They were one of four teams to meet with Howard at the Beverly Hills offices of agent Dan Fegan, making a pitch that played in part to the big man's child-like personality, creating a cartoon that portrayed Howard as a superhero.
Howard, who endured a miserable lone season with the Lakers, indeed left Los Angeles for Texas. However, he chose Houston, where he could team with another superstar in his prime in James Harden. A charming Fegan client by the name of Chandler Parsons spearheaded the Rockets' recruiting efforts along with general manager Daryl Morey, who insists he didn't mean to taunt when he sent Cuban a text inquiring about Nowitzki's availability soon after Howard informed the Mavs that he wouldn't be signing with them.
Summer salvage: The Mavs used the money earmarked for one max contract to sign three new starters: point guard Jose Calderon, center Samuel Dalembert and shooting guard Monta Ellis. The Mavs could only meet Ellis' reduced asking price after they discovered that guard Devin Harris needed toe surgery, prompting the sides to mutually agree to take a multi-year deal off the table.
"Plan B sometimes is better than Plan A," Cuban said before an early-season game against the Rockets, suggesting that the Mavs might be better off with their haul than if they landed Howard. "Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't do, but it's still too early to tell."
The Mavs won 50 games that season before pushing the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. Calderon and Dalembert were part of the package the Mavs sent to the New York Knicks the next summer to bring Tyson Chandler back to Dallas.
Ellis averaged 19.0 points per game for a pair of playoff teams during his two-year stint in Dallas, but his moodiness wore on the Mavs, who made no effort to re-sign him after he opted out of his deal last summer.
2014: Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James
The King James pipe dream never got past Cuban traveling to meet with agent Rich Paul, which became public knowledge after pictures of Cuban eating lunch in Cleveland hit social media.
The Mavs' Melo courtship essentially consisted of a courtesy meeting. Anthony squeezed in a two-hour meeting with the Mavs' contingent at Cuban's mansion, sandwiched between business trips to Houston and Los Angeles that day.
Dallas quickly determined that it wasn't a wise use of their time to wait on decisions from the perennial All-Star forwards and moved on as James declared he was returning to Cleveland and Anthony announced that he was staying in New York.
Summer salvage: The Mavs made Parsons their priority, taking a risk by calling the Rockets' bluff on Houston's plan to match any offer for the restricted free agent small forward. Cuban and Fegan came up with a three-year, $46 million deal that includes a player option for the final season, a contract that Morey called "the most untradeable" that he'd ever seen.
Based on the Mavs' internal projections, they overpaid Parsons by a few million bucks a year. Cuban decided it was well worth it to acquire a young player who could be a foundation piece during Nowitzki's golden years and beyond.
The Mavs' return on investment will be determined by how well Parsons recovers from hybrid microfracture surgery on his right knee, how he handles what he hopes is an expanded role and whether he stays in Dallas long-term plans.
2015: DeAndre Jordan and LaMarcus Aldridge
The Mavs and Aldridge, a Dallas ISD product, just went through the motions of meeting with each other. Jordan was always the Mavs' priority, and they were never at the top of Aldridge's list.
The Jordan summer saga is fresh enough on folks' minds that we need not delve into much detail here, having done so a little less than four months ago.
The CliffsNotes version: Jordan committed to the Mavs after a relentless recruiting effort by Parsons and Cuban, who celebrated by boasting about how their prized new addition would be the NBA's best big man for the next decade.
But Jordan got cold feet. He cut off communication with Cuban, invited a Clippers contingent to his home and re-signed with L.A. after a wild, rumor-fueled, emoji-filled day.
"He wasn't ready for being a franchise player," Parsons told ESPN.com in July. "He was scared. He was scared to take the next step in his career."
Summer salvage: The Mavs still signed Wesley Matthews, who got $13 million more on his four-year deal when Jordan reneged on his commitment, as Cuban fulfilled his promise to give Matthews as much money as possible depending on Jordan's decision.
With the free agency market picked thin -- and Tyson Chandler firmly committed to the Phoenix Suns -- the Mavs filled their void at center by acquiring Zaza Pachulia in a salary-dump deal from the Milwaukee Bucks. They also signed JaVale McGee to a partially guaranteed, two-year minimum deal with the hope that he can overcome the medical issues that have limited the big man to 28 games over the last two-plus seasons.
Williams, the Mavs' first big-fish target back in 2012, ended up coming to Dallas as a consolation prize.
"I think we came out way ahead," Cuban said. "Different people have different responsibilities. It's better to find out when they don't match up before you do a deal than after."