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With the heat turning up on the commissioner's controversial decision to squash a three-team trade that would have sent superstar New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets and Lamar Odom to the Hornets, David Stern on Friday released the following statement:

Since the NBA purchased the New Orleans Hornets, final responsibility for significant management decisions lies with the Commissioner's Office in consultation with team chairman Jac Sperling. All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets. In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade.

Earlier in the day, Mavs owner Mark Cuban defended the league's stance on the "Ben and Skin Show" on 103.3 FM ESPN.

NBA commissioner David Stern offered a letter to fans shortly after the league released the 66-game regular-season schedule Tuesday night:

Dear Fans,

On behalf of the entire NBA family, I want to thank you for your patience and support over the past several months. The new collective bargaining agreement is designed to provide more competitive balance for our league, reward strong performances by our players, and strengthen our game by improving its economics. We believe this agreement will benefit our teams, players, and most importantly, fans by making the NBA stronger.

In the days and weeks ahead, all of us hope you will enjoy the run-up to the start of the season: free agency, training camp, and preseason games. Each NBA team will be hosting special events for fans, so be sure to check your favorite team's website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed for details. This season we look forward to bringing you more of everything you love about NBA basketball: incredible competition, tremendous excitement, and unending hard work and dedication by the world's best athletes.

Thank you for being an NBA fan. I hope you enjoy the season, which promises to be a most exciting one.

Sincerely,

David J. Stern

NBA Commissioner

Dallas Mavericks player representative Jason Terry is in New York where NBPA executive director Billy Hunter and union president Derek Fisher announced that the players have rejected the owners' latest proposal.

The labor fight will now head to the court system as the union disbands. NBA commissioner David Stern said the league is headed into a nuclear winter as the 2011-12 season is in peril.

Terry took a few minutes after the press conference to discuss the situation as much as he could.

"I hate where it's gone right now. It sucks for us because of what we accomplished this last season," Terry said, meaning his 2010-11 NBA champion Mavs teammates. "It sucks for our fans and everyone that works at the arena. And it sucks for me because I want to be playing."

Terry, who stands to lose $11.7 million on the final year of his contract in Dallas, is no longer at liberty to comment on the proceedings now that the standoff is headed for the courts. Terry has been firm in his stance that the players would be ready to walk away from the deal if they did not find it acceptable. And, despite his comment that he hates where this has gone, he firmly stands behind the players' decision.

"Stand strong, stand together," Terry said.

A large contingent of NBA players attended the NBPA meeting Monday morning to deliberate the deal the owners delivered to the union late Thursday night and to show a measure of strength. Those players, including Terry, gathered around Hunter and Fisher as the union's leadership duo dropped the bomb at a press conference around 1 p.m. Central time.

Terry, who has been consistent in his desire to see a deal get done so the Mavs could get on with their title defense, has also been consistent in standing behind union leaders as one of 30 player reps.

"We hear a lot about the players are greedy. It's not that," Terry said Saturday night while taking part in Josh Howard's charity basketball game in Dallas. "The players just want to go out and play the game they love under fair terms."

Now, the process heads into uncharted waters. As Stern said, the season is in serious jeopardy. Stern knows it. The players know it.

Terry, whose children attend the same private school as Mavs owner Mark Cuban's and coach Rick Carlisle's, returns home to Dallas in the morning without a deal and still unable to speak to the Mavs' brass when he picks up the kids or attends their soccer games.

Most of all, he's completely uncertain of where this chaos goes next.

"We'll see what happens," Terry said.

Commissioner David Stern dropped a hammer after labor negotiations broke down Friday, canceling the rest of the November NBA games.

That means nine more games can be crossed off the Mavericks’ schedule, increasing the total to 16.

They had already lost marquee matchups against the Bulls, Spurs and Thunder in the first batch of canceled games. A Nov. 28 visit from first-round foe Portland to the American Airlines Center is the highest-profile Mavs game to get wiped out with this announcement.

A look at the Mavs games canceled Friday:

Nov. 16, at Grizzlies
Nov. 18, vs. Kings
Nov. 19, at Hawks
Nov. 22, vs. 76ers
Nov. 23, at Rockets
Nov. 25, at Denver
Nov. 26, vs. Cavaliers
Nov. 28, vs. Trail Blazers
Nov. 30, vs. Suns

The season will be reduced to a maximum of 66 games if none of these games are re-scheduled, which would put historic 50-win streaks by the Mavs and Spurs in serious jeopardy.

The Mavs have 11 consecutive 50-win seasons. The Spurs have 13, dating to the last lockout-shortened season. Magic Johnson’s Lakers, who won at least 50 games 12 straight seasons, are the only other team with a streak of more than 10 such campaigns.

Today was supposed to be one heck of a feel-good day for the world champion Dallas Mavericks. Believe it or not, the 2011-12 season officially was to kick off today with the team's annual Media Day at American Airlines Center.

That's the day when players and coaches greet the media for the first time since the end of the previous season. They mill around the AAC practice court granting interviews and taking pictures. It's also when they pose for photos for team promotional initiatives and even some national stuff that you'll see on broadcasts throughout the season.

Basically, everyone's happy to be there because it means training camp opens the next day and it's back to basketball.

This day would have been one last chance to revel in what they accomplished that June night in Miami when Dirk Nowitzki ran off the court because winning the title was just too much emotion for him to handle at that moment.

This day ain't happening.

Nowitzki remains in Germany. Jason Kidd is probably on an extended honeymoon with his bride on some tropical island. Shawn Marion is likely jet-setting. Caron Butler is getting ready to suit up for the first time for a star-laden exhibition game in Miami on Saturday night. Tyson Chandler continues to kick with his family in Southern California just waiting to find out which team he's going to play for next.

Such is life during the ongoing NBA lockout that is dangerously close to canceling regular-season games. Owners and players will be back at the negotiating table this week. Is there hope? Not sure. Last week saw multiple meetings that included Mavs owner Mark Cuban, a shouting match between Dwyane Wade and commissioner David Stern and then a marathon meeting of close to eight hours that reportedly ended with a wide gulf still separating the two sides.

What must be driving Cuban and Donnie Nelson nuts is simply the inability to do anything. They have six free agents sitting out there, including Chandler, Butler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and The Custodian, Brian Cardinal.

What would have been finalized in early July has dragged into October and nobody is really sure when it all will come to a head. Until a deal is made the defending champs can't go to work on re-signing their 7-foot-1 defensive anchor and emotional leader in Chandler. Will Butler return? Will Barea be a Mav or maybe a Laker?

The clock is ticking. No reason to go to the AAC today. The lights won't be on.

Now, if you've got $650 burning a hole in your pocket, sign up for two Mavs fantasy camps this week with coach Rick Carlisle and his staff. The lights will be on for that.

Dennis Rodman wore No. 70 and mostly rolled with blonde-colored hair and at times infused the outer coating of his wacky dome with blue splotches during his short stay with the Dallas Mavericks in February 2000 that officially ended his Hall of Fame basketball career.

Yes, the Worm, now 50, will be best remembered for wearing a wedding dress and his decorative use of boas. The flamboyant power forward has promised a full fashion blowout tonight, accentuated by acrobats and allegedly a helicopter entrance, for his induction as part of the 2011 class of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame (6 p.m., NBA TV).

Rodman, who graduated from Dallas' South Oak Cliff High School and played mostly anonymously at Southeastern Oklahoma State, first made a name for himself as a rebounding machine with the "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons. Later, he won titles as a the maddening, tattooed, multi-pierced, temper-tantrum-throwing, ugly step-child playing with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.

There were also the memorable, kicking and screaming failed stints with the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.

At the time brand-spanking new Mavs owner Mark Cuban reached out to a 38-year-old Rodman for pure spectacle purposes, Dallas was actually just starting to play respectable basketball under coach and general manager Don Nelson after the dark decade of the 90s. Rodman had been out of the league for a year and well, the Dallas stint was certainly the media circus Cuban knew it would be. On the court it was pretty much epic failure. The Mavs had just gone on a 10-3 run and talk of possibly getting into the playoffs surfaced

Rodman played 12 games in a Dallas uniform. The team won four games. He scored 34 points, but showed he could still manhandle the boards, grabbing 171 rebounds.

The outspoken one was, too, with the Mavs -- a squad that included a second-year, baby-faced Dirk Nowitzki, a developmental Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Shawn Bradley, Robert Pack, Hubert Davis, Sean Rooks and Gary Trent. Twice Rodman was tossed from games and both instances he challenged NBA commissioner David Stern, once to a boxing match -- naked.

"I wish me and David Stern could put some damn gloves on and go in the ring," Rodman said. "We'll see who comes out the winner. I've been a marked man for years. That's the first person they're going to look for - Dennis Rodman."

Rodman was also one of the first to criticize the club's young, billionaire owner for being too chummy with players and intruding on the players' space.

"He doesn't need to be hanging around the players like he's a coach or something," Rodman said. "That's like [Dallas Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones and it's dumb. That's why the Cowboys went down. He needs to be the owner, step back and put people in who can get this team in the right direction."

Rodman said that on March 7 and he was released on March 8, ending his colorful NBA career with averages of 7.3 points and 13.1 rebounds a game.

At the time, Cuban said Rodman's comments about him -- and that one wasn't the only one -- had nothing to do with releasing him. Cuban said the team just didn't get the wins he thought they would with one of the all-time great rebounders, defenders and characters on the squad.

Maybe so, but Cuban -- who, remember, had Rodman shack up at his guest house when he arrived in town -- also declined two requests this week to reminisce about Rodman's month-long carnival in Big D.

Oh, brother. This NBA lockout gag order is ultimately going to cause a mess for somebody. Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle might have innocently stepped in it Thursday while doing a telephone interview on a Portland sports talk radio station.

Carlisle went on the air with show host and Oregonian columnist John Canzano, who at first joked how he wouldn't try to bait Carlisle into a $1 million fine, the hefty amount commissioner David Stern has allegedly threatened could come down if ownership/management/coaching staff or anyone else on an NBA payroll talks about the lockout or current NBA players or apparently anything that assumes NBA players exist at all (just peek at NBA.com).

It is a bit surprising that the normally cautious Carlisle would even grant an interview under such tense and trying times, but he did serve three seasons as an assistant coach with the Trail Blazers and he has a history with Canzano.

So the interview gets started and Canzano acknowledges that Carlisle can't talk about the lockout, so he asks the coach what can they talk about.

"We can talk about the women's [World Cup] soccer team," Carlisle says.

Canzano follows up with, "What do you think about women's soccer?"

Carlisle, as dry as ever, says, "I like it." Then he adds, "They're a kick-ass bunch of chicks; it's fun to watch."

The interview then touches on expected topics like, "Did you sense non-Mavs fans were pulling for you guys against the Heat?"

Carlisle said he did and that he felt fans were rooting for Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd with Carlisle calling them "great, great players, two all-time great players that didn't have the ring."

Uh-oh.

Carlisle was later asked what the Blazers can do to become a better team. Carlisle naturally said it's not his place to tell coach Nate McMillan or Blazers management how to run their club, and then in the natural flow of the conversation, Carlisle went here:

"[LaMarcus] Aldridge took a quantum leap this year. I voted for him for All-Stars; I have no idea how he didn't make the All-Star team, and he's a great player."

Oops.

Carlisle also mentioned Blazers guards Brandon Roy and Wesley Matthews, and how the draft-night trade with Portland to acquire Rudy Fernandez was a good move for the Mavs. Carlisle said he liked getting a veteran player instead of a rookie.

The interview continues with neither party thinking gag-order violation flags were being thrown in New York. And so the conversation meandered on and at about 11 minutes in, as Carlisle is talking about how changes to NBA rules over the last decade have enhanced the game, he finishes a rambling thought by suddenly detouring to, "John, I'm sorry, I've got to run. I've got something I've got to do here."

And that was that.

Carlisle's abrupt exit spawned a new conversation about why he bailed so quickly. Was NBA Big Brother listening?

Soon after, Canzano reports that he received a text message from "an NBA executive who is listening to the show" and said, "You better believe that Carlisle got a call immediately from somebody at the NBA office or the Dallas Mavericks."

Oh, brother.

Could commissioner Stern really drop the piggy bank on Carlisle and the Mavs over comments that had nothing to do with the lockout and, in fact, actually kept the game in the forefront? If a fine of any size is coming, shame on the NBA.

An NBA spokesman essentially had no comment Thursday night, saying it is impossible to comment every time a coach or team exec may or may not say or do something. Just Wednesday night, Mavs owner Mark Cuban had special permission from Stern to attend the ESPYs in Los Angeles with half his team. It's not known if Cuban's praise of his players on national television was frowned upon.

"If [Carlisle] gets fined a million dollars for that," Canzano told his listening audience, "I know that we're not going to be able to raise enough money to pay for that fine, but we can get people like in Albany and Salem and everywhere else to come up and help him with the fine. Stupidest thing ever."

About 20 minutes after Carlisle hung up, Canzano caught up with him via text message. Canzano said Carlisle told him that somebody reminded him he's not supposed to talk about current players. Carlisle also said he's not in trouble.

For the love of free speech -- nah, for the love of sanity -- let's hope so.

MIAMI -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's silence during this playoff run is so stunning that it even left NBA commissioner David Stern speechless during his NBA Finals press conference prior to Game 1.

Stern was asked for his reaction to Cuban's locked lips, the same ones that have been responsible for millions of dollars in fines, including $250,000 after Game 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals.

"It's too delicious, but I'll pass," Stern said. "I just think that he's trying to be as supportive as he can of his team, and he's doing a heck of a job in terms of the talent that they've gotten, the coach he's put there, and I think he's enjoying it and spending a lot of time supporting his team. And I think that's terrific."

DALLAS -- Amid the hubbub surrounding NBA referee and Dallas Mavericks nemesis Danny Crawford officiating tonight's Game 2, Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who has been fined millions of dollars through the years for his criticism of the league's refs, said he approves of the overall job being done by third-year ref head General Ron Johnson.

J0hnson, a two-star General recently retired from active duty as Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- the second highest ranking engineer in the Army -- after completing 32 years of military service as a combat engineer.

Johnson, a two-star General who retired from active duty as Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after 32 years of military service, is finishing his third year as senior vice president, referee operations. NBA Commissioner David Stern created the position and hired Johnson in July 2008 to oversee all aspects of the NBA’s officiating program, including recruiting, training and development, scheduling, data management and analysis, and work rules enforcement.

One aspect of Johnson's regime has been to introduce a new, younger crop of refs into the league. Cuban said he likes what he's seen.

"No question. Particularly with the younger refs," Cuban said prior to Tuesday's Game 2 pitting the Mavs and the Portland Trail Blazers. "The younger refs coming into the league right now are much, much better prepared and are more trained than five or six years ago or when I came into the league."

We assume Cuban is really pleased with the situation and not just saying that to say out of trouble with the General.

BOSTON -- Tyson Chandler's slim hope of making his first All-Star team were dashed by the commissioner's quick selection of Minnesota Timberwovles double-double machine Kevin Love.

Love will replace the injured Yao Ming to fill out the Western Conference's 12-man roster for the 2011 All-Star game in Los Angeles.

Reserves were announced Thursday night and Love, Chandler, LaMarcus Aldridge and Steve Nash were among those deserving, but left off the team.

Following the announcement of the reserves, Love received a huge outpouring of support, which might or might not have influenced not only David Stern's decision to pick Love, but the speed in which he did so.

While Yao was the fans' choice to start at center, Love's appointment to the team does not put him in the starting lineup. Head coach Gregg Popovich will make that call. Just guessing, but Popovich is not the kind of guy that will just stick reserve Tim Duncan in as the starter because it's his guy. Popovich is more likely to give that spot to Pau Gasol in front of the home-town crowd.

Dirk Nowitzki, picked to his 10th consecutive All-Star team Thursday, will be the lone representative for the Dallas Mavericks.

DALLAS -- The NBA announced the 2011 All-Star Game starters as voted by the fans Thursday night. There were no surprises as Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony finished one and two, respectively, and will be the starting forwards for the Western Conference.

Next Thursday, seven reserves will be selected by the coaches of each conference to round out the 12-man rosters. The most hotly contested position is forward in the West with Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Zach Randolph, David West, Lamar Odom and Rudy Gay all with solid cases to be selected as an All-Star.

Nowitzki would figure to be a shoe-in as he seeks his 10th consecutive All-Star appearance. He was an MVP candidate before his injury on Dec. 27, averaging 24.1 points on 54.5-percent shooting and 7.4 rebounds.

Duncan, who has played in 12 consecutive All-Star games and started 11 in a row, also figures to be a selection with the Spurs rolling at 39-7. He could be selected by commissioner David Stern to replace Yao Ming, who was voted in by fans as the starting center.

Stern could also select Gasol with the game being played at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Either selection would at least open one more spot for a deserving player.

The Mavs are hopeful that Stern will simply promote Andrew Bynum, the second-place finisher at center, and then use the backup center position to select Tyson Chandler, who has had a tremendous impact on the Mavs but was not included on the All-Star ballot.

The only one cringing as hard as Mark Cuban over the Dallas Mavericks' tumble is David Stern.

As if the commissioner didn't already know that NBA fans view the regular season as largely irrelevant, just take a look at the standings. At the season's mid-point four of the league's six divisions are yawn-fests. The Mavs' three-week slide has added the Southwest Division to that category, decisively altering what was shaping up to be a classic race to 82 between two fierce rivals potentially for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

Dallas' 82-77 loss Thursday night at Chicago Bulls dropped it a season-high nine games behind the 36-6 San Antonio Spurs, who can extend the lead to 9 1/2 with a win tonight against the New York Knicks. That's a daunting number of games to make up with 42 remaining. Less than a month ago when Dirk Nowitzki went down with a sprained knee on Dec. 27, the Mavs were 2 1/2 games back of the Spurs and had already won in San Antonio.

Remarkably, the Mavs are the closest second-place team among the four division races that are essentially over -- barring injuy or other mishaps -- before the Los Angeles Lakers have even started to care.

L.A. in the Pacific, Chicago in the Central and Boston in the Atlantic all hold 10-game leads over their nearest divisional foe. Only the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference and the Northwest Division in the Western Conference have compelling races going on. Each division has three teams packed within 2 1/2 games, yet only the Miami Heat among that group of six hold national appeal, even if polarizing.

The shame of the Mavs' freefall which stands at 10 losses in 13 games is that the division was shaping up to go down to the wire as it did in 2005-06, when both teams reached 60 wins with the Spurs nudging ahead to 63 wins to take the division by 3 1/2 games.

That race served as a prelude to a tremendous semifinal round playoff series in which the Mavs lost a 3-1 lead only to take down the then-defending champions in Game 7 on their home floor, paving the Mavs' path to their first NBA Finals.

Oh well, there's always the race for playoff seeding. Set your snooze for March.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- After the Dallas Mavericks slipped past the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, Jason Terry noted that he's excited to play the Oklahoma City Thunder because some of the OKC players have talked up this matchup as something of a rivalry.

That's news to the Mavs, who've handled the Thunder rather handily, and before that the Seattle SuperSonics, over the past decade. Led by breath-of-fresh-air superstar Kevin Durant, the up-and-coming Thunder did split the season series last season, 2-2, and the young squad seemed to enjoy running up and down the floor against the veteran Mavericks.

But a rivalry?

"Dallas, they’re so close [geographically], that would be the logical choice," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "But, until you really face them and have a lot of heartbreak against them it’s hard to say that there’s a rivalry."

The Thunder have a rivalry problem. For one, the team moved from Seattle three years ago, but has remained in the Northwest Division with Portland, Utah, Denver and Minnesota. Fine cities, but not a lot in common there. Then there's the fact that the Seattle/OKC franchise has suffered for years until finally getting back into the playoffs last season.

So who is the Thunder's rival?

"I don’t think we have one really," Brooks said. "I think when you have a history with teams and playoff experiences and losses and victories you have that, and we haven’t had that opportunity to have year after year battles against anybody yet."

Fair enough. The Los Angeles Lakers then likely rank high on the rivalry scale for the Thunder after last season's riveting seven-game playoff series. Probably not so much for L.A.

Oklahoma City needs geographical rivalries and perhaps those are starting to form with the Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs now that the Thunder are competing at the upper level of the Western Conference.

But, what really ingrains rivalries is geographic ties within the division. Somtimes it's easy to forget that Memphisand not Oklahoma City resides in the Southwest Division. Picture a division with Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans and Oklahoma City, with each assured of visiting the other teams' building twice every season.

"I just know when I played for the Rockets, I did not like the Mavericks and I did not like the Spurs," Brooks said. "But, I changed allegiance pretty quick when I got traded to the Mavericks; I hated the Rockets and I hated the Spurs."

This year, the Mavs and Thunder play just three times and they'll wrap up the season series on Jan. 6, three months before the end of the regular season. The Thunder will play at Dallas once this season, the same as every Eastern Conference team, depriving the area of seeing Durant, one of the great young stars in the league, despite him playing just 200 miles due north.

Recently, NBA commissioner David Stern broached contraction as an option as the league sifts through financial issues with a potential lockout coming. If not contraction, perhaps some financially strapped franchises will end up moving locations, which could lead to shuffling of the divisions or even conferences.

It should be a priority of the league to get the Oklahoma City Thunder out of the Northwest Division and into the Southwest Division where they belong.

NBA Commissioner David Stern joins The Herd with Colin Cowherd and says there will be no free agent summit -- players talk all the time. Stern also touches on Phil Jackson's fines, Mark Cuban, the start times of games and LeBron’s future ... but won't predict the Finals.

Click here for the podcast.

Mark Cuban has publicly stated what anybody with an ounce of basketball sense already knew: Heck, yes, he hopes to bring LeBron James to Dallas.

That might be music to the ears of Mavericks fans, including the folks who built lebrontothemavs.com, a site that Cuban tweeted about Thursday morning. However, the comments Cuban made in an interview posted on CNNMoney.com also violate the letter of the NBA’s anti-tampering law.

That can’t possibly be news to Cuban, who knows every nook and cranny of the NBA rules and regulations. Just in case this particular rule slipped anybody’s mind, the league office sent a memo about it to teams in December 2008.

That memo reminded teams that “the only proper response is to decline comment” if asked about a potential free agent prior to when the market opens on July 1. "Penalties for tampering include suspension of the offending person, prohibition of the offending team from hiring the person being tampered with, forfeiture of draft picks, and individual and/or team fines of up to $5 million," the memo stated.

Cuban didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail from ESPNDallas.com regarding his potential tampering violation, and we’re also still waiting for a response from the league office. (UPDATE: Cuban replied a few hours later: "no. Its not tampering. Not even close. nice try")

That won’t stop me from speculating about Cuban’s motives for possibly drawing the wrath of old pal David Stern. I'm going to give Cuban credit for being smart enough to have a calculated reason for his comments.

Perhaps Cuban figures it’s worth paying a seven-figure fine to let LeBron know in no uncertain terms that he’s serious about trying to add the two-time MVP to the core of a 55-win team that already features two future Hall of Famers.

Those certainly weren’t the first comments Cuban has made that might have been intended for LeBron’s ears. For example, Cuban definitely knew that LeBron was a huge Cowboys fan who loved big stages when in the aftermath of the All-Star Game he raised the possibility of playing occasional home games in JerryWorld. But the name LeBron never slipped out of Cuban’s lips while discussing the Mavs’ hopes to make a sign-and-trade splash in free agency.

Cuban crossed that line during his CNN sitdown.

This probably isn’t a serious enough violation to get slapped with the more serious penalties, like being prohibited from pursuing LeBron or forfeiting draft picks. Is it worth a few million bucks to possibly improve the long-shot odds of persuading LeBron to force a sign-and-trade deal with Dallas?

Hey, how often do two-time MVPs just entering their prime become free agents?