Arbitrator rules that Mark Cuban must pay Don Nelson $6.3 million

by PegNews wire

DALLAS — An arbitrator ruled against Mark Cuban today, stating that the Dallas Mavericks owner owes and must immediately pay former coach Don Nelson $6.3 million. The money was owed as part of Nelson's coaching and consultancy agreement.

Cuban appeared surprisingly pumped by the news

The initial lawsuit came about when, after reportedly informing Cuban that Dallas would be his last coaching job, Nelson left the Mavericks in 2005 to coach the Golden State Warriors in 2006. Nelson was still under contract to get paid a consultancy fee for the Mavs of $200,000 a year, which Cuban stopped payment on. Nelson then said that since he was not getting paid by Cuban anymore, he was free to coach elsewhere.

The issue was a minor point of contention until the 2006 playoffs, when Nelson's Warriors upset the Mavericks in one of the biggest collapses in sports history. Cuban accused Nelson of using insider information to defeat the Mavericks, while Nelson counterpunched with the back-pay issue.

Posted by Todd M.