Suns’ Tyson Chandler calls departure from Dallas ‘a shot to the heart’

PHOENIX — Suns center Tyson Chandler thought his second stint with the Dallas Mavericks would be a long one. He could only nod in agreement when Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told a Dallas radio station on Friday that Chandler has a right to be angry with Cuban about the way things turned out.

“It was a shot to the heart,” Chandler said of his departure from Dallas this summer. “The thing that disappointed me the most — it wasn’t the money or not being offered, it was taking away my legacy from a place that I loved so much.”

Chandler won a title with the Mavericks in 2011, but departed that summer to sign a four-year $58 million contract with the New York Knicks in a deal that was officially a three-team sign-and-trade. When he returned to Dallas last season, he hoped he was righting an earlier wrong.

“I wanted one day to see my jersey hung in the rafters next to Dirk (Nowitzki) and Jason Kidd and the guys that are already there,” he said. “I wanted the opportunity to walk my son in that building. Going through free agency, that was the only thing I cared about and it was like it was ripped from me by one individual who owns the team. It hurt.”

Cuban told ESPN 103.3 FM hosts Dennis and Friedo that he never thought it would get to the point where Chandler left.

“We actually tried to have discussions right at the start of the year about an extension and it kind of just died on the vine,” Cuban said. “His agent didn’t really take it anywhere, and I was the first to say ‘If you don’t want to take it right now, we’ll try to figure something out at the end of the year,’ because I realized that by waiting that gave Tyson an extra year.”

When the offseason arrived, however, the Mavs pursued DeAndre Jordan instead, only to have him renege on a verbal agreement and re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers.

“The opportunity for DeAndre came along and we were pretty straightforward,” Cuban said. “Tyson or his agent gave us the ultimatum before the decision was made. He said he wouldn’t wait. That’s his decision. It is what it is. He does have a right to be salty, because I really did suggest to him — and it’s exactly the way I thought — that he’d be here for a long time.”

Chandler admits it took him a while to move past the hurt and anger, but when he settled on the Suns, it was for a specific reason.

“I felt like if I couldn’t have that legacy in Dallas, then I wanted to go to a place where I could have the most impact,” he said. “With all the opportunities I had on the table, with seven or eight teams calling, I looked at this young franchise in this great city with a great opportunity to come and lead.”

The Suns will face the Mavericks in Dallas in the final game of the preseason on Oct. 21 at American Airlines Center. They also open the regular season by hosting the Mavs on Oct. 28 at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

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