DALLAS -- Forward Shawn Marion said Friday that he would refuse to report to a bad team if the Dallas Mavericks trade him to one.
"If I'm going to get traded, they're going to tell me what's going on and where I'm going," the 14-year veteran said. "Because if I'm going to a (expletive) situation, I'm not going. It's just that simple.
"At this time, I'm too old to be trying to go through and be a, you know what I'm saying, not have a chance to do anything. I'm at a point where I want to be playing for something right now."
Marion didn't have an angry tone when he delivered this message. Rather, he was matter-of-fact, insisting he won't report to a team that doesn't have a chance to contend for a title.
"That's the only way I'm going, yeah," Marion said. "Yeah, that's it. That's the only possibility that could come out of that. Other than that, it ain't happening."
So Marion would retire if traded to a lottery-bound team?
"Maybe," he said, laughing. "Anything is possible."
The 34-year-old forward is due $9.3 million next season, the final year of a contract that includes a 15 percent trade kicker, which would bump his salary into eight figures.