Mavericks guard Dennis Smith Jr. came to the defense of DeAndre Jordan this week, backing up the 30-year-old by denying a report from ESPN that Jordan’s selfish play has rubbed some teammates the wrong way.
“That news be fake shawty and we already know it,” Smith Jr. wrote on Instagram with a picture of himself and Jordan. “Our eyes on da prize.”
Jordan appeared to steal a rebound from rookie Luka Doncic in a contest earlier this month, prompting some to believe his own ambitions were being placed before the team’s aspirations. Also coming to Jordan’s defense was assistant coach Darrell Armstrong, who took to social media with a statement of his own (hat tip to the Dallas Morning News).
“I’m just here to send out some good vibes to DeAndre Jordan who is one of our leaders of this team,” Armstrong said. “He’s not selfish. He’s a guy who plays hard, tries and gives energy to these guys. For an article to come out like that, I don’t like it. I’ve been a veteran leader in my career. When you lead you lead by example and then you lead by being vocal. That’s what leaders do. Stealing rebounds? We need rebounds. Mavs fans, you know when we need rebounds. That’s something big for someone to say he’s selfish to take a rebound from Luka.”
There’s more out of Dallas tonight:
- Mavs owner Mark Cuban expressed his support of Jordan, a player he signed to a free agent contract this past summer. “It’s so ridiculous,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “I mean, for godsakes, we’re No. 1 in defensive rebounding after being a horrible rebounding team [pre-Jordan]. And every guy on the team recognizes that.”
- Cuban also made an appearance on Dallas-based radio station 1310 The Ticket to discuss a variety of topics, including the Mavs’ sexual harassment investigation. “All I can tell you is that’s behind us now, and we’re a completely different organization on the business side,” Cuban said, according to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. Cuban was asked several different questions in the roughly 10-minute interview.
- Cuban hopes Dirk Nowitzki will stay with the Mavericks for another season, according to a separate article from the Dallas Morning News. Nowitzki has yet to play this season due to an ankle injury after appearing in 77 games with the Mavs last year.
“That news be fake shawty and we already know it. Our eyes on da prize”?? Somewhere, an English teacher failed this young man.
He wasn’t attempting to write an English paper.
Hey grammar Nazis need love to
How about just writing something so people who speak English can understand. That’s a start…
I hear a stampede of social justice warriors coming, I’m out of here.
In case you haven’t noticed, Instagram isn’t designed for every post to be captioned with the Queen’s English
There’s Queens English and then there’s whatever the crap Smith was spewing. It doesn’t have to be perfect but what he wrote was just borderline idiotic.
Its a social media post with limited characters. Chill out man
In regards to Smith’s eloquently written twitter message: “That news be fake shawty and we already know it,” “Our eyes on da prize.”
Exactly what prize are their eyes on? The #1 draft pick? That’s about the only prize they’ve got a chance at.
The 8 seed is the prize! That way they can be swept in the first round!
That’s not happening. The top pick is literally the only prize available to them. After reading Smith’s Instagram post he probably thinks they’re the favorite in the West.
Prize is keeping their 2019 pick.
Maybe DSJ needs to watch the clip of DJ pushing away Doncic, if he was a rival player it would have been a foul… so not very good for DJ, looks like he is a selfish player, just stat padding, real sad. Also DSJ is having a bad year, but of course I already said he is very much of an average starter, a real waste pick for the team, he is jealous that Doncis is gonna be a superstar while he never will be even close to a star player, awww well what can you do, right?
English – terrible, but there are a whole bunch of morons on social media that seem to think it’s “cool” to post like that. I don’t know, maybe it’s that I’m 42 that I don’t get it.
Cuban doesn’t care about high draft picks, he wants to win. 8th spit in the West I am sure is more important to him than a draft pick. It shouldn’t be, but Mark is who he is.
They’ve got no shot at the 8th seed. If the Mavs think they can make the playoffs they they’re as dumb as Smith’s Instagram post.