Why Houston Rockets Fans Shouldn't Hate Chandler Parsons

First thing's first: Chandler Parsons wanted to stay a Houston Rocket.

In fact, he genuinely believed he was that third star Houston was looking for to add to their one-two punch in James Harden and Dwight Howard.

So before Rockets fans send their obsolete Parsons jerseys to the homeless in Dallas, they need to remember who helped persuade Howard to come to Houston in the first place; who texted and called Howard daily in order to successfully woo him to the biggest city in Texas.

Because, on the other hand, Howard's agent, Dan Fegan, wanted him in Dallas.

Fegan allegedly has a personal relationship with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and he was selling the dream to his client of the glorious opportunity to play for a proud franchise with a respected champion and superstar in Dirk Nowitzki, who would complement the center beautifully given their contrasting skills.

Then Chandler Evan Parsons entered the conversation.

Weeks before Howard's decision to join the Red Nation, Parsons fired his agent Mark Bartelstein to be represented by, yep, you guessed it: Dan Fegan.

If you've never seen an episode of Entourage, agents only care about one thing: money—getting the maximum dollar for their client trumps everything.



Mastermind Fegan, who will certainly enjoy his percentage from Parsons' new $46 million deal, quite possibly could have made some sort of agreement with the Rockets: If they don't pick up the fourth-year team option on his new client that was worth $960,000 (arguably the best bang-for-your-buck contract in the league), he would help sway his superstar big man to forget about his 'ole buddy Cubes and join the younger, up-and-coming team that Dwight was already leaning towards joining.

So how could Fegan do this, barring black magic or hypnosis? How could genius GM Daryl Morey, known for creating the best deals for his team (see Patrick Beverley) actually let Parsons out of that contract?

Even going as far back as last May, Morey reassured Parsons that he was going to stay in Houston, that he needn't worry about anything regarding his new contract. Morey was so confident, in fact, and talked about it so openly, that it scared off other teams to even offer anything because they knew it was simply going to be matched. (By letting Parsons out of his deal, he became a restricted free agent.)

Daryl told me this process is going to be frustrating and you're going to read a lot of stuff you're not going to like, but at the end of the day, you've worked hard for this and you've earned this. He warned me it could get ugly at times once the media gets involved and that you're gonna see people say you're not worth this or you're not worth that. [Morey] just say me down and said, "Go out and sign the best contract you can. Just know in the back of your head that we're gonna match the contract."

Who knew GMs could flop as badly as Manu Ginobili? Parsons certainly didn't.

After Morey scared away all the other potential bidders, he proceeded to lowball Parsons with deals worth far less than $46 million.

That's when Fegan decided to take control of the situation and create his own contract to shop around for Parsons: a three-year deal, featuring a player option for year two, and a maximum 15 percent trade kicker.

Knowing how greatly Morey cares about cap flexibility, especially as he was pursuing Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, Fegan first took the deal to Cuban to sign in order to force the Rockets to match it.

Morey quickly realized all the terms that came with the offer sheet Parsons signed with Dallas, and saw it similar to the "poison pill" contract he used to steal Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik from the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, respectively. 

And, now, here we are.

As Morey sees it, Parsons contract is, and I quote, "literally one of the most untradeable structures that I've ever seen."

He goes on to say:

That's why it came down to a bet of Harden, Howard and Parsons being the final piece, because we would have had no ability to do anything after that. And Harden, Howard, Parsons could have been good enough. I think Parsons is a tremendous player and is going to keep getting better. ... [But] if we ever wanted to move off and go after the other stars, if we ever wanted to go after a different core, it wasn't going to possible. A small-market team that might want a Chandler, he can opt out and leave [after two years], so they wouldn't want him. A big-market team that's planning for free agency, maybe for the elite free agents coming up in the future, he can opt in.

And boom goes the dynamite.

Dan Fegan created a deal for Parsons that neither small market nor big market teams would trade for, and that's exactly what the Dallas Mavericks wanted.

Because they believe Chandler Parsons is that third star.

A great celebration! pic.twitter.com/M7yy4WoFmq
— Terri Parsons (@sadie1532) July 10, 2014

For the Rockets sake, let's hope not; Otherwise they will look as foolish as the franchise from which they stole James Harden.

Only time will tell who ends up being the winner of this deal between the Mavericks and the Rockets, but one thing is for sure: Fegan (and Parsons) pinned these two franchises against each other, restored a great rivalry, and, financially, made out like bandits.

You crafty genius, Fegan. You crafty genius.