Mark Cuban: Doc Rivers' 'professional life was over' if DeAndre Jordan left

Mark Cuban, the second-most quotable owner in North American sports, appeared on Colin Cowherd's new show on Fox Sports 1 and talk about some aspects of the DeAndre Jordan saga that he had previously shied away from. You can listen to the whole interview here.

Once again, Cuban made it clear -- clearer in this interview than past ones, I'd say -- that he wasn't pleased with the manner Doc Rivers pursued Jordan after Jordan had already given the Mavericks a verbal commitment.

"The most interesting thing is, it shows you what someone will do when their entire future is vanishing in front of them," Cuban said on the show. "That's exactly what Doc did and I give him credit for it. His professional life was over if he didn't get DJ."

Last week, Rivers had appeared on the show, saying this about Cuban:

Doc Rivers: "I don't know Mark well. Did he handle this well? No. To me he acted very silly. Look at the difference. I coached DJ. DJ didn't call me when he left. Did you see me out in front of the cameras screaming and yelling and crying. I didn't do that. I was disappointed internally and I handled it that way. Mark tends to do things out in the open and that's fine. . . . When you take shots at DJ, the guy you loved two days ago and now you don't like so much anymore, all that did is tell DJ even more that he made the right choice."

Here's Cuban's full response.

"He (Rivers) obviously didn't' actually hear or see what I said. I didn't say a whole lot. I responded to DJ's Twitter apology and that's pretty much it. I haven't said a whole lot about it so I don't know where he's getting what he's got. But I think the most interesting thing is, it shows you what someone will do when their entire future is vanishing in front of them and that's exactly what Doc did and I give him credit for it. His professional life was over if he didn't get DJ. His back was against the wall and he did what he needed to do. More power to him. Sometimes the deals you don't do are the best ones so we'll see. Doc obviously hadn't heard what I had said because I really didn't say anything.

"You overpay for your best players because they become part of a team. And in aggregate you hope the sum of the parts is greater. We saw DJ as a cornerstone. If you can't handle the pressure of a week, it's going to be difficult to handle the pressure of being the cornerstone. It is what it is. It turned out the way it is. We'll play the games and see what happens. I'm surprised to hear Doc say that. If you go back and look at the things I said, intentionally I've not said much and he said I was out in front of the cameras. My typical response when someone brings up DJ's name is, who? ... That's who Doc is. I respect the fact that when his professional life was about to dissipate and disappear and go up in flames, they did what they had to do and they got DJ back. More power to him."

The newsbytes from this saga may never end.