Tony Romo Actually Would Have Played In The Mavs Game Last Night If Adam Silver Weren't Such A Selfish Jerk

ESPN – If Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had his way, Tony Romo would not only have dressed for Tuesday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, he would have found his way into the game.

When he approached NBA commissioner Adam Silver with the idea, Cuban said, “I told him what I was going to do and said, ‘Fine me if you don’t like it.'”

Silver told Cuban the contract would not be honored, which killed the idea but did not stop the Mavericks from honoring the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback.

“Anybody who thinks a layup line is disrespectful, hasn’t watched an NBA game,” Cuban said. “We’ve got people shooting half-court shots at every break, we’ve got kids for ball boys … We’re entertainment. And if they’re so self-important they can’t recognize that, it’s on them. Not me.”

Romo admitted to feeling a little out of place after going through his first — and only — Mavericks shootaround on Tuesday morning.

“I feel like they’re all 7 feet tall,” Romo said. “They’re all long and lean. I look like a turtle out there next to these guys. But it’s a special group of guys who are talented and the NBA is a special fraternity.”

So the Mavericks are long eliminated, Tony Romo has obviously long been a fixture in Dallas (and in particular supportive of the Mavs since he and Dirk/Cuban came up at the same time), could you imagine a better feel good moment than local legend Tony Romo coming off the football field and burying a single jumper like the lovable high school kid getting a bucket at the end of a game? That’d be a top 10 NBA memory of the season. Maybe Adam Silver doesn’t need that, a circus sideshow of a moment in a season with a million players doing outlandish statistical and athletic things all year. But the crowd was so fucking into saying goodbye to Tony. Check out the crowd’s reaction when Rick Carlisle jokingly acted like he was going to put Romo in for the final two minutes:

And he was actually looking kinda filthy in warmups and the morning practice:

Romo ABSOLUTELY could have gotten a bucket with the Nuggets not giving a shit on D while the crowd gave the biggest ovation of the Mavs’ season. And instead we got a whole lot of Tony Romo and a nice feel good evening but a bit of blue balls on what it could have been. Adam Silver has done a lot of great things as a commissioner but not giving a team carte blanche to play a recently retired NFL player will go down as one of his greatest errors, even if CBS is grateful for not giving him a torn ACL before he hits the announce booth. And the only thing the NBA really cares about was accomplished either way:

INSTANT JERSDAY WINNER. Either way for as cool/bizarre of a night as it was and how much greater it could have been, there’s one thing we can all agree on…it did definitely resemble a Make A Wish at times:

Oh Tony. Never change. Never unretire.