Mark Cuban and Don Nelson Argue About Cash, LaFrentz and Hugs

The Dallas Morning News did some enterprise reporting, acquiring transcripts from a two-day arbitration hearing between Mark Cuban and Don Nelson last summer. If you'll recall, Cuban withheld a substantial sum of wages owed to his former coach and GM on the basis that Nelson used info about the Mavs garnered during his one-year as an advisor to beat the Mavs in the fateful 2007 playoff series as coach of the Warriors.

Cuban sued Nelson on those grounds two years ago. The pair went to arbitration last year. Nelson won. Cuban still hasn't paid the $6 million, even though the sum amounts to little more than a pimple on Cuban's wealthy butt.

The transcripts, by the way, are as hilarious as you'd guessed ... and surprisingly more heartrending.

You can read all 800 pages (condensed into a 200-page PDF) here, thanks to the Morning News. In the transcript, you'll find:

* Nellie blaming his assistant coaches for getting him drunk and making him sign an extension to stay in Dallas in 2003.

* Cuban calling Antoine Walker a cancer. And noting that Nellie fave Raef LaFrentz was terrible.

* Nellie saving his son Donnie Nelson from drafting Pavel Podkolzine with the No. 5 pick in 2004. (Whew!)

* The heartbreaking story of when Cuban had to refuse to match Phoenix's (then insane) offer for Steve Nash.

* Nellie answering his door with khakis, no shirt and a glass of scotch.

* Cuban's rationale for the whole "insider info" accusation.

* A philosophical discussion of hugs. Actual quote:

[Arbitrator]: And so at the press conference, how -- did y'all shake hands?

[Cuban]: Yes, sir, and I hugged him back. I hugged him; he didn't hug me.

[Arbitrator]: Y'all both hugged each other?

[Cuban]: I hugged him. He didn't hug me back. I know a Nellie hug, and that was not a Nellie hug.

If that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you have no soul.