DALLAS -- Dallas forward Adrian Dantley said Sunday that politics led to his mid-February trade from the Detroit Pistons to the Mavericks.
In an interview on CBS television during halftime of Sunday's third game of the NBA finals between the Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers, Dantley made his strongest statements to date about the trade that sent him to Dallas in return for Dallas forward Mark Aguirre and a 1991 first-round draft pick.
'I feel like I got screwed in the deal. It didn't have anything to do with basketball,' Dantley said. 'It had to do with a lot of politics in the game that probably a lot of people don't know about.'
Published reports have indicated that Dantley, who helped the Pistons into the finals against the Lakers last season, was traded at the insistence of Detroit guard Isiah Thomas. Dantley alluded to those reports Sunday but did not mention Thomas, a longtime friend of Aguirre, by name.
'Everybody knows who made the deal, who orchestrated the deal,' Dantley said. 'It's old news. I really try not to go into details about certain things because as of right now, I am with the Dallas Mavericks. I've taken the high road and tried to be low-key about the whole thing.
'Everybody knows that I should be there (in Inglewood, Calif., site of Sunday's game) playing for the championship,' he added.
Dantley, a 13-year NBA veteran, hedged when asked if he would return to the Mavericks next year. He refused to report to the team for eight days after the trade, breaking the NBA's 48-hour deadline for players to report to their new teams.
'I'd like to be in Dallas,' Dantley said. 'Mr. C (Dallas owner Donald Carter), I'm supposed to have a conversation with him in the middle of the summer. I hope I am in Dallas, but I don't have any control over that.'
Dantley, who averaged 20 points per game for Detroit a year ago, averaged 18.4 points in 42 games with Detroit and 20.3 points in 31 games with the Mavericks last season.
