FanHouse Antoine Wright

The rumored sign-and-trade sending Shawn Marion to Dallas will become official today, reports ESPN.com and the Dallas Morning News.

What had been a tricky deal between Dallas, who is apparently in BUY! BUY! BUY! mode, and Toronto, who is attempting to maximize its Hedo Turkoglu cushion, turned into a four-way ballroom dance. Orlando reportedly jumped in to get a trade exception for the loss of Hedo and Memphis will provide its usual role as facilitator.

If the NBA could establish clarity on what is and isn't a flagrant foul, maybe Dallas' Antoine Wright would have bear-hugged Carmelo Anthony instead of bumping him like they were dancing to Lady GaGa in a club. Maybe an intentional foul would have been called, rather than a non-call that led to Anthony's game-winning three-pointer. Maybe the Mavericks would have stolen Game 3 of their series with Denver, leaving them even with the Nuggets today and not down 3-1.

Tempers were flying high following the Denver Nuggets' Game 3 victory on Saturday in Dallas.

While cameras caught Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, shoving a cameraman after the buzzer sounded, Cuban is denying a Denver Post report claiming he approached Nuggets' forward Kenyon Martin's mother, Lydia Moore, after the game and said, "Your son is a punk."

FanHouse contacted Cuban via e-mail on Monday and asked if he ever said that to Moore. "Absolutely not," Cuban replied.

It's been a postseason full of questionable calls. And no one's really been happy with it. Most times when a team's fans call foul (or no-foul) on the officiating, you can attribute it to homerism and turning a blind eye to a team's mistakes.

Of course, there are exceptions.

The Dallas Mavericks held a two point lead over the Denver Nuggets this afternoon with six seconds left. The Nuggets inbounded and Carmelo Anthony bobbled the ball before recovering and swinging left. Antoine Wright approached Melo at the wing in full knowledge of two facts.

1. The Mavericks had a foul to give.

2. With a one-possession lead on defense with a foul to give, you always foul to interrupt the play.

Wright came at Melo with two seconds on the clock. And that's where things went a little haywire.

Mark Cuban recently utilized everyone's favorite social media tool, Twitter, in order to criticize the referees in a recent Mavericks-Nuggets game. Cuban wondered why the crew in stripes didn't tag J.R. Smith for coming off the bench to taunt Antoine Wright.

Matt Watson pointed out, at the time, that Cuban would probably have a rather large fine coming from the NBA, primarily because David Stern does not care one bit for referee criticism. Well, it appears, based on Cubes' latest Tweet, that Watson was spot on.

Charlie Villanueva's halftime tweet a couple of weeks ago earned him a stern lecture from Scott Skiles. Will Mark Cuban's post-game tweet on Friday night earn him a (David) Stern fine? Stay tuned.

When the Mavericks visited Denver in January, Cuban was fined $25,000 after seeking out J.R. Smith at halftime to tell him he didn't appreciate Smith throwing an elbow near Antoine Wright's head. The Mavs and Nuggets met on Friday for the first time since that incident, and Cuban once again took exception to Smith, who he felt left Denver's bench late in the game to taunt Wright. But instead of confronting Smith, Cuban vented on Twitter about the refs turning a blind eye.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA Friday for confronting Denver's J.R. Smith after Cuban saw Smith throw an elbow at Dallas' Antoine Wright's head.

Cubes getting fined by the league is nothing new, obviously. But what upped the juice on this story was Cuban's hilariously sarcastic response to Smith, which he posted on his blog.

During Tuesday night's game between the Mavericks and the Nuggets, Mavs' owner Mark Cuban decided to take it upon himself to let Denver's J.R. Smith know that he didn't appreciate an elbow that Smith attempted to land on one of his players, Antoine Wright.

Words were exchanged, George Karl felt it was inappropriate behavior, and Cuban refused Smith's peace offering of a pair of his autographed shoes afterwards. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to begin with, but apparently, the league office thinks otherwise.

Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban has never been afraid of injecting himself into a situation, and Tuesday night's game against the Denver Nuggets was just another example.

Cuban took exception to an elbow that was thrown by the Nuggets' J.R. Smith to the head of the Mavs' Antoine Wright near the end of the first half. While it didn't connect, Cuban didn't like what he saw, and wasn't afraid to have a little dialogue with Smith about it as the teams headed into halftime.

In the end, something convinced Keith Van Horn to take the four million dollars to come out of retirement and "play" for the New Jersey Nets. Whether it was his love for the Mavs and Nets and Mark Cuban and Rod Thorn, respectively, or whether it was the four million dollars ... well, who can really say? Either way, it appears that the deal is [finally, almost!] sealed and Jason Kidd, who did not practice with New Jersey on Monday, will be heading to Dallas.

The Nets and Mavericks had to pass an unprecedented series of challenges by the NBA, but the final hurdle was cleared tonight, when Keith Van Horn consented to sign a $4 million contract that makes the trade work financially and report to New Jersey for what is estimated to be 30 days of work.

All that's left now is an official rubber stamp from the league.

The Nets will send Kidd and Malik Allen to the Mavericks for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell and Van Horn.

In a separate deal, the Nets will dispatch Antoine Wright to Dallas for a $1.6 million trade exception to create the necessary roster spot for Van Horn.

So, in the end, Cubes gets the point guard that he thinks will put the Mavericks over the top. He also grabs, in what I think could end up being a sneaky steal, Wright from the Nets. The Nets get to reload on their point guard situation with the youthful Harris and pick up some cap flexibility. And Kidd doesn't have to remember 2008 as the most awkward year of his life. Is it a good deal? Well, the Nets got a good deal because Kidd wasn't taking them anywhere. As has been commonly observed over the last few days, though, the deal only works for the Mavericks if they win a title.