Looking back: Cuban-Nash

If you like sports AND business read this:

http://blogmaverick.com/2004/07/03/steve-nash-part-1/

It’s an old article but I just discovered it.  It is from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s blog and describes the process after the 2004 season when the Mav’s were trying to resign Steve Nash.  This is the first article I’ve read that describes this process of a team and player from a first hand account.  I’ve always wondered how negotiations like this go down, and Cuban does an excellent job of describing the process.

Reading it 5 years later actually makes it way more interesting.  You can’t blame either side for their actions looking back, Nash was a good but not great player at the time, with injury concerns, So Cuban’s decesion to offer 4 years guranteed, and 5 if he stays healthy made sense.  However Phoenix offered Nash 6 guranteed years.  If you’re Nash this is a no-brainer, as he himself was probably worried about getting injured.  While It appears it turned out great for Phoenix, as Nash won 2 MVPs, they have never reached the NBA finals.  Now Nash is on the downside of his career and Nash is due 12.25 Million this year, the Suns are no mans land.  Should be interesting to see what they do this offseason.