http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3244818
Mavs forward George blocks trade of Kidd to Mavs
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: February 13, 2008, 8:57 PM ET
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With the New Jersey Nets poised to complete a blockbuster deal to send Jason Kidd back to Dallas on Wednesday night, Mavericks reserve forward Devean George has unexpectedly exercised his right to block the trade, according to NBA front-office sources. Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that the teams verbally agreed to the deal earlier Wednesday and were preparing to submit the trade for league approval when George informed the Mavericks that he wouldn't consent to being included in the deal, which is his right based on a rare provision in his one-year contract.
No Kidding Around
Jason Kidd, despite being a month away from turning 35, is still producing at a high level. Only two others, Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson, have met his averages (below) over the course of a season, and they did so in their early- and mid-20s.
Kidd by the numbers
Career 2007-08
Points 14.3 11.3
Assists 9.2 10.4
Rebounds 6.7 8.1
FG Pct. 40.1 *36.6
*Career worst
The deal -- salvaged from talks on a three-way trade with Portland that developed and fizzled quickly two weeks ago -- has Dallas sending 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse, the expiring contracts of center DeSagana Diop and George and guard Maurice Ager to New Jersey for Kidd and forward Malik Allen.
Sources say Dallas would also send the Nets the league-maximum $3 million, the Mavs' first-round draft pick this June and a first-rounder in 2010.
Kidd was with the Nets in Toronto, but didn't talk to the media before the game. He and Allen were both inactive, along with reserve Antoine Wright.
ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard reports that the Nets and the Mavs were likewise poised to complete a separate trade that will send swingman Wright to Dallas for a future second-round pick.
Before Dallas' game against Portland on Wednesday night, Mavs coach Avery Johnson wasn't ready to call the trade complete.
"What trade?" he asked reporters, then added, "all it is is speculation."
Dallas had widely been considered the favorite to win the Kidd trade sweepstakes, despite the repeated attempts of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to publicly dismiss the idea of parting with multiple regulars for Kidd. Cuban told several New York-based reporters before New Jersey beat Dallas on Sunday that a deal for All-Star floor leader would severely weaken his roster.
"For us to make the numbers work in a deal like that, we'd have to trade away half the team," Cuban said. "We're not doing that, so it just doesn't work. And we like our team. We've got a lot of room for improvement and we hope to get better. But right now, I just don't see anything happening.
Yet sources close to the process insist that the talks had heated up within the past 24 hours, with the Mavs still tantalized by the prospect of bringing Kidd back more than a decade after the pre-Cuban regime drafted him out of Cal, watched him share rookie of the year honors with Grant Hill in 1994-95 and then traded him to Phoenix on the day after Christmas in 1996.
Stackhouse's agent told him he was on the move.
"Now I think it's pretty much a done deal," Stackhouse told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday.
The Nets were expected to buy out Stackhouse's contract immediately, which would have enabled him to re-sign with Dallas if he waits 30 days.
"I feel great. I get 30 days to rest, then I'll be right back," Stackhouse said. "I ain't going nowhere."
That might be more true than he knew.
Senior writer Marc Stein covers the NBA for ESPN.com.
