Avery, Cuban clash on contract

[Kori Ellis]

Avery, Cuban clash on contract
By ART GARCIA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/basketball/nba/dallas_mavericks/15104974.htm

Are the Mavericks and Avery Johnson headed for a quickie divorce because of a contract dispute? Don't count on it.

But some doubt has crept into the equation.

One month after the grandest season in Mavs history ended in the NBA Finals, talks to extend and/or enhance the contract of the league's most successful young coach have been shelved in what is becoming an increasingly tense clash between Mark Cuban and Johnson's representatives.

According to sources, at issue is Johnson's current contract, which has three years remaining at approximately $2.5 million per season. The deal ranks in the bottom third of the NBA's 30 coaches.

Each of the other seven coaches who took teams to the Western Conference playoffs last season was paid more than Johnson.

Johnson's inexperience -- he served less than one year as an assistant before his promotion late in the 2004-05 season -- explains his current salary. His rapid success, however, would make Johnson a hot commodity able to command big money on the open market.

But he's not on the open market.

It's not uncommon for coaches coming off successful seasons to have their contracts restructured in "good faith" gestures from the club. Mike Brown (Cavaliers), Eddie Jordan (Wizards) and Byron Scott (Hornets) each signed new deals recently.

Jordan is reportedly earning $4 million per season even though he's 53 games under .500 for his career. Former Mavs coach Don Nelson was paid in the neighborhood of $5 million last season in what would have been the last year of his contract.

Johnson, 41, led the Mavs to a 60-22 record in his first full season, tying the best mark in team history, and earned Coach of the Year honors. The Mavs reached the Finals for the first time, falling in six games to the Miami Heat.

Leading the Mavs to within two wins of the franchise's first championship figured to land Johnson a significant raise instead of just guaranteeing the fourth year of his contract.

So far, communication between Cuban and Johnson has been scarce, according to the sources. Cuban and Johnson both declined comment.

The sources also said Johnson would be agreeable to an extension with a significant bonus that would up his average salary in line with other top coaches in the $5 million range, but Cuban has kept a hard-line stance by refusing to renegotiate.

Negotiations on a new contract between Cuban and the agent for assistant coach Del Harris also have stalled.

Even without a new agreement, Johnson isn't considering resigning. He's repeatedly said he's looking forward to next season and has played an active role in the team's off-season moves.

Tensions between Cuban and his coach are nothing new in Mavs land. The battle of wills and dollars defined the frosty relationship between Cuban and Nelson.

At the base of the Cuban-Nelson conflict were serious personality and communication issues. It isn't supposed to be that way between Cuban and Johnson.

Initially labeled as Nelson's hand-picked successor, Johnson won Cuban over with the coaching job he did filling in for Nelson during parts of the 2004-05 season.

The fiery coach and the billionaire have continually emphasized their close personal bond. Johnson stressed before the start of the Finals that his success -- and the team's -- wouldn't have been possible without Cuban's support.

Despite the criticism Cuban took locally and nationally during the playoffs for his conduct and dealings with the league -- star Dirk Nowitzki recently condemned the owner's behavior -- Johnson continued to publicly back Cuban.

Behind the scenes, though, uneasiness seems to be mounting.

[ChumpDumper]

Well that's odd.

[ABDENOUR POWER]

Pay up, Cuban. Avery deserves it.

[ChumpDumper]

whottt is going to have a field day with this.

[Mavs_man_41]

Damnit cuban pay the man what he deserves. You cant hand out a 65 million dollar contract to Erick fucking Dampier and then refuse to give the coach of the year the money he deserves.

[mabber]

I don't buy this. It doesn't sound like Cuban to be tight with money in a situation where someone should/could be rewarded and it doesn't sound like Avery to be greedy for more money when he's under contract. I'm guessing (that's what this writer is doing as well) that Cuban doesn't want to deal with this until he gets Dirk & Howard extended. Maybe Avery's agent wanted to discuss it now and Cuban said not yet.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Avery is such a nice guy. It was really great to watch him kick our ass and I hope Cuban pays him 8 million a year. He's swell.[/typical Spurs fan]

[ChumpDumper]

Cuban can afford to wait another season to see if Avery can coach the choke out of the Mavs.

[mabber]

Cuban can afford to wait another season to see if Avery can coach the choke out of the Mavs.

That's probably not too far from the truth.

[mabber]

Tense At The Top?
Scoop: Cuban Speaks On AJ Contract

By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
Mark Cuban does indeed feel some "uneasiness,'' some "tension'' and some "doubt'' regarding the Avery Johnson renegotiation story. But the Mavs owner's negative emotions are not directed at his coach; rather, they are directed at a newspaper tale he views as wildly off-base.
"I don't know where (the writer) got that stuff,'' Cuban tells DallasBasketball.com, responding to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's "sources''-driven report that suggests a Cuban-Johnson contract-related rift and is spiced by incendiary catchphrases such as "quickie divorce,'' "doubt,'' "a tense clash,'' "communication is scarce,'' "tensions,'' "uneasiness,'' and "Cuban and Johnson both declined comment.''
Cuban certainly didn't decline comment when DB.com contacted him on Sunday morning. He responded within moments -- and we sensed no "tension,'' "doubt'' or "uneasiness'' regarding communication with Johnson.
FISH: 'TALLADEGA NOTS'
D-LORD ON DA-FOR-AJ
"I talk to Avery every other day. Our relationship is great,'' Cuban said, adding that he and Johnson have wisely kept any re-negotiation talks between management and the coach's representatives. "Any discussions about an extension have been with his agent and have been very friendly.''
One portion of Art Garcia's story is apparently accurate, and notable: Johnson's current contract, with three years remaining at about $2.5 million per season, is at the root of some in-house discussion. Cuban recognizes Avery as a special talent; Johnson, in his first full season as a head coach, guided Dallas to a 60-22 record, a Coach of the Year honor, and a berth in the NBA Finals. Because of all that, and because of the Cuban-Johnson relationship, a re-negotiation request may be merited.
Still, Cuban questions the motivation of the story, wondering, "I don't know where he got that stuff. What would be invaluable would be to find out who he talked to. That's the important info.''
Some of this, we suppose, is simply the result of the High Cost of Being High-Profile. As Diana Ross once sang (except, I guess, she never really sang it; Notorious BIG just did some posthumous trickery): "It's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see.'' This weekend, the Cuban-Dan Marino group bidding to buy Cuban's hometown Pittsburgh Penguins was declined. Meanwhile, Cuban's plate is full with contract dealings involving Dirk Nowitzki, who we understand is primed to re-up with his max-out extension when he returns from Europe.
We've got an email into Art Garcia, a friend of DB.com who doesn't work his beat with any malice toward the Mavs. We intend on politely asking him whether he drew his impression of "conflict'' from Johnson's side, from management's side, or elsewhere. And we were going to ask him how it is possible to raise this issue without getting a response from the always-accessible Cuban.
But just now, Cuban himself provided us with an answer or two. An answer to his general view of "bonuses'' ( his fresh entry into his blog) and his present view on "access.''
He has made himself less accessible, he tells us, "since I got tired of them (the mainstream media) talking about everything but basketball.''
Happily, Mark Cuban and Avery Johnson ARE talking. About everything INCLUDING basketball. And, we're betting, are doing so cordially and constructively.

1241pm July 30 06 Back

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, I had just read that. Cuban did a good job skirting around the real issue, and Fish enjoys his access too much to point that out.

[ATX Spur]

Cuban can afford to wait another season to see if Avery can coach the choke out of the Mavs.
:tu Avery can wait. He doesn't want to go anywhere.

[ChumpDumper]

Of course not. He just wants more money.

[CubanMustGo]

Someone tell Cubes there's no luxo taxes on coaching salaries

[ducks]

houston may call aj.....

[mabber]

Yeah, I had just read that. Cuban did a good job skirting around the real issue, and Fish enjoys his access too much to point that out.

This is pretty much the only thing that Fish has going on anymore. You can tell he's really bitter over how he's been left behind in today's sports media market.

[exstatic]

Fish ---> Mavs
Buck ---> Spurs?

[J.T.]

I heard Larry Brown needs a coaching job. And now Avery and Cuban are having problems? Suspicious...

[Obstructed_View]

This is pretty much the only thing that Fish has going on anymore. You can tell he's really bitter over how he's been left behind in today's sports media market.
Ain't that the truth. Isn't that website basically just a Mark Cuban head-bobbing session anyway?

[maxpower]

Fish ---> Mavs
Buck ---> Spurs?

There is no Fish equivalent here in SA.
He is a semi hack who blogs his sports opinion after getting run out of sports radio so fast his head is still spinning. :spin
Since that land has actual sports talk competition he got his butt whooped up and down 35, 30, 45, 356, 183 and everywhere in between.
Luckily the newspaper guys here know to stay away from a medium they do not have the personality for...

:drunk

[Obstructed_View]

There is no Fish equivalent here in SA.
He is a semi hack who blogs his sports opinion after getting run out of sports radio so fast his head is still spinning. :spin
Since that land has actual sports talk competition he got his butt whooped up and down 35, 30, 45, 356, 183 and everywhere in between.
Luckily the newspaper guys here know to stay away from a medium they do not have the personality for...

:drunk
I liked Fisher when he was on KLIF and talked Cowboys 12 months a year. Back then he was smart enough to admit that he didn't care about, nor did he care to know about, basketball.

[mabber]

Ain't that the truth. Isn't that website basically just a Mark Cuban head-bobbing session anyway?

Forum is pretty decent on that site but the posting volume is very low compared to this site.

[greywheel]

Star-Telegram writers are not backing off.

Cuban is not thinking straight
JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
In My Opinion

What in the world is Mavs owner Mark Cuban thinking? Is he thinking?

He's not. He can't be.

If Cuban was thinking, or thinking straight, there would be no mounting tension between him and Mavs coach Avery Johnson like S-T beat man Art Garcia reported in Sunday's paper. Certainly not about something as simple as whether to renegotiate the NBA Coach of the Year's contract as a reward for leading this Mavs team to within two victories of an NBA title.

This is a no-brainer. Just do it.

Cuban obviously doesn't agree because contract renegotiations were started and then broken off with Avery's camp. Neither side sounds particularly happy either.

In response to my e-mail trying to determine what exactly is going on, Cuban called the story "ridiculous."

He did not elaborate when asked what portion he felt to be wrong; that he is unwilling to renegotiate Avery's deal or that failure to do so may create or already has created problems between them.

What I found "ridiculous" was Avery's pay ranks in the bottom third of NBA coaches, he is the lowest paid of the Western Conference playoff coaches, Cuban chose this moment with his coach to get randomly tough and randomly cheap, and he does not think Avery is worth the $1.5 million necessary to get him on par with Wizards coach Eddie Jordan.

So I e-mailed Cuban to ask: "What does it hurt to reward Avery for a good year?"

"Time to take a business class, Jen," he responded.

Fair enough. My "A" in Walter Johnson's statistics class, my lone business offering at Mizzou, was a long time ago. Let's make a deal, though, Mark. If I enroll in Cuban's School of Business, you have to take Common Sense 101.

Lesson 1: Do not tick off your most valuable employee.

Lesson 2: Do not draw a line in the sand with arguably the most popular sports personality going in Texas because you will lose. Especially now with plenty of Mavs precincts still fuming about your boorish Finals behavior.

Homework: Quit screwing around. Pick up your phone. Call Avery. Ask him how many millions, four or five, sound good to him. Then say, "In appreciation for everything you did this season, I'd be happy to pay that number." Sign the deal. Start sending bigger checks.

If nothing else, it is a just reward for Avery dealing with Cuban's Finals antics and at least publicly defending him while Mavs players like Dirk Nowitzki were openly critical.

Not that it hurt Dirk.

Nowitzki has two years remaining on his contract and already Cuban has been talking extension. His logic is sound. He wants to get his best player locked up to show his appreciation and to keep from getting in a bidding war in free agency.

So why not do the same for Avery? He was the MVP of the Mavs last season. Hands down.

It is almost like Cuban has taken a page from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' book, thinking "500 coaches" are capable of doing what Avery did. We all know how that ended for Jerry. Say this for him, though, he had enough smarts to win two Super Bowl titles before picking a fight with Jimmy Johnson.

What Cuban is doing is picking a fight on the honeymoon of what has the potential to be a really great relationship, a relationship that ends with NBA championships and parades. Plural.

And over what? Money? Principle?

Cuban provided insight into his thoughts on renegotiating contracts in an entry on his blog titled "Paying bonuses and Managing...some thoughts."

"Now if you are a person that does just that. Challenges yourself. Excels. Makes the company more competitive, our customers happier and our bottom line bigger, should you automatically get a bonus?" Cuban wrote.

"Of course not. You are doing exactly what you were hired to do. You were hired to be great. You are expected to do great things. We pay you to do just that. You don't deserve a bonus."

Cuban has a point, to a point. Too much redoing of contracts exists in sports nowadays.

Look no further than T.O.

Everybody's favorite Cowboy agreed to and signed a very lucrative deal with Philadelphia, and a year later he felt he deserved more. Philly drew a line in the sand and insisted he honor his deal as signed.

Cuban has every right to do this as well. And judging by a not-so-subtle "conversation" between himself and a random "employee" on his blog, this is exactly what awaits Avery:

"employee: I just did something great. I want a bonus because I did something great.

"Me : I know. It's wonderful. You are wonderful. Which is exactly why I hired you. I expect you do to great things and I pay you to do great things. Don't you remember telling me how great you were when we interviewed you?

"employee: Yes, but shouldn't I get a bonus?

"Me: No. But if you keep on doing great things, you will get far more opportunities and we will both hopefully benefit from that."

Hmmm. Do you think little "e" is really Little G?

Do you think what Cuban was really trying to blog was, "Hey, Avery, you have three years remaining at approximately $2.5 million per season on your deal, live up to your deal?"

Me, too.

The question remains: Why?

Why, if you have this hot, young coach who has almost single-handedly pushed your team to another level -- who, if you do not screw it up, is going to lead your team to a championship -- do you not double his salary to $5 million a year willingly? Why not insist upon it?

The only reason I can think of is Cuban is not thinking.

[z0sa]

I don't see Dallas winning a championship for a while yet.

[LEONARD]

Cuban is on the air in about 5 min's...

http://theticket.com/listen.htm

[ShoogarBear]

Cuban is pissed cause people think Avery coached the Mavs this year, not him.

[LEONARD]

Cuban is pissed cause people think Avery coached the Mavs this year, not him.

You're spot on... :smokin :drunk

[LB7]

Johnson: No problems with contract

05:21 PM CDT on Monday, July 24, 2006
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News



Avery Johnson said today that he and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have never been on better terms and that if there ever was a point when the coach’s contract was a problem, those days are past.

He added that if his original contract has been amended -- and he sounded like a man who is at peace with his paycheck -- people may never know for sure.

“Right now, I have a contract,’’ said Johnson, 41, who will earn about $2.5 million next season. “And if there is a time that Mark wants to revisit it, we will. But nobody else is going to know. It’s really nobody else’s [business]. Nobody needs to know anything about it right now. Mark’s not going to put me in a position where I can’t do the best job. He’s just not going to do it. He’s too smart for that.

“But everything we do around here, we do it on our own timing. And whatever we’re doing, we’re headed in the right direction.’’

Cuban said he has no issues with his coach.

“There’s no story there,” Cuban told The Ticket (KTCK-1310 AM) on Monday afternoon. “Avery and I are great. I was in Avery’s office. We can talk about everything. My goal is to put him in a position to succeed and vice versa.”

In his first full season as a head coach, Johnson led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. That success ensured that his original contract would be guaranteed for four seasons at a total of about $12 million.

Johnson has been mum the last month while speculation swirled that he was negotiating for a new or amended contract.

He gave no clues -- other than positive vibes -- Monday about where the contract situation stands. But it’s clear that he is happy with the situation.

“If I was in a situation contractually that needed to be addressed, wouldn’t you think Mark would address it because of how close our relationship is?’’ Johnson said. “We need to give him more credit. It’s been reported that he didn’t address my contract? How do you know that? Let’s give Mark more credit than that.

“In my situation, if you had the type of contract I had and it needed to be addressed … as creative as he is, why, after what happened in the last situation, would he want to ever have any tension, even if I was wrong? Even if I was wrong about something, hypothetically, why would he want to have any tension with a coach that is as loyal as they come? So give him some credit. That’s my point.’’

Johnson’s predecessor, Don Nelson, had a difficult relationship with Cuban at the end of his coaching tenure. When Nelson led the Mavericks to the Western Conference finals in 2003, his contract was expiring. It took protracted negotiations for him to get a three-year extension at basically the same money he was making.

There is no such frostiness between Johnson and Cuban, who met for more than an hour in Johnson’s office Monday, the day before the coach is to leave on a lengthy trip to Africa.

“All is good in Mavs-land,’’ Johnson said.

E-mail [email protected]