Memphis Grizzlies' new boy Chandler Parsons said that he expects to be booed on Friday when the Memphis Grizzlies visit the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. It's the first time Chandler Parsons will be back in Dallas since he opted out of his contract and signing a four year max contract with the Memphis Grizzlies this offseason.
Ever since that controversial decision, Chandler Parsons has been receiving a lot of flak and negative feedbacks from Mavs fans especially on social media. They mostly focus on his knee injuries that cut short his two seasons in Dallas. They also accuse him of "stealing money" from Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki. The German took a pay-cut in order for the Mavericks to have salary cap flexibility to sign big time free agents. They ended up using that cap space to sign Chandler Parsons to a three-year, $46 million contract.
Chandler Parsons anticipates all the bashing to spill over into the arena on Friday. But according to him, the logic behind all these hate is just silly.
"Houston, I get it. I said some stupid stuff on the way out of Houston after three seasons," Parsons said, referring to the boos he gets from Houston Rockets fans every time he returns to the Toyota Center as a visitor. "Dallas, I don't understand. It's like getting mad at somebody for getting in a car wreck and breaking their arm. Like, how in the world can you be mad at somebody for getting hurt? It makes no sense. That's just so wrong to get mad at somebody for getting hurt, like they want to go through the rehab, want to go through the pain, want to go through the misery of not playing. I can never understand that aspect of it.
"So when it comes to Dallas, you're going to get mad at me because Dirk decided to take less money to bring in a really good player and then unfortunately he gets hurt? That's why you're mad? Sure, boo."
The Dallas Mavericks did not make an offer to Chandler Parsons when he opted out of his contract, which would have paid him $16 million, due to their concern about his knee issues.