Brooklyn Nets center DeAndre Jordan caused quite the stir during the summer of 2015 when he backed out of his agreement with the Dallas Mavericks to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Clippers fans were happy that Jordan decided to come back, but Mavs fans were upset and took a lot of shots at Jordan on social media.
Jordan, who signed a four-year deal with the Nets this past summer, says he went through a “dark time” after reading some of the things Mavs fans were saying to him, via Leo Sepkowitz of Bleacher Report:
Everything from typical NBA trash talk to death threats rolled in. Like a “dumbass,” he says, he read through it all.
One message might read, “We're so glad you came back to the Clippers!” The next: “F–k you, I hope you die!” Jordan stared at his phone dumbfounded and hurt. He questioned himself. “I started to think, ‘Damn, am I a bad person? Maybe I'm a bad guy, that I did this to these people.'”
Jordan is a people-pleaser, and all of that negativity—coming from, of all places, his home state of Texas—weighed on him.
“I'm not going to say I went into a depression,” he says, “but it definitely was a dark time for me during the rest of that summer.”
Jordan eventually made his way to Dallas last season after signing with the Mavs in the summer of 2018, but Dallas wound up trading him to the New York Knicks in the Kristaps Porzingis trade.
In 26 games this season for the Nets, Jordan is averaging 8.2 points and 10.0 rebounds. He’s shooting 65.4 percent from the field and 66.1 percent from the free-throw line.
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