VIA ESPN:

Jason Kidd has given the Dallas Mavericks a verbal commitment that he will re-sign with the team Wednesday, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Kidd, 36, will receive a 3-year, fully-guaranteed contract worth in excess of $25 million.

Kidd elected to stay in Dallas in the face of a hard push from the New York Knicks, who last week offered Kidd the most they could ($19 million over three years).

Signing Kidd for more than one season would have impacted the Knicks’ efforts to amass substantial salary cap space for the summer of 2010, and they’re expected to woo Cleveland’s LeBron James and at least one other top free agent.

In that scenario, pressure on Knicks president Donnie Walsh to trade either Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries — or both — would have increased significantly, but sources say that Walsh and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni felt that acquiring Kidd would have been worth such hassles because of their confidence in Kidd’s ability to change the Knicks’ culture.

Kidd’s interest in returning to the Atlantic Division was mutual, but the Mavericks were always considered favorites to re-sign him because they could comfortably exceed the Knicks’ max offer of three years at the projected mid-level exception of $5.8 million per year.

Although Kidd initially sent signals that he planned to take the full holiday weekend before making a decision, Dallas began inching closer to a deal on Friday when Kidd and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban met at Cuban’s house.

Wednesday is the first day teams can formally sign free agents to new contracts after the NBA announces the salary cap and luxury tax figures for the 2009-10 season.

Check out these ‘Noisemakers’ and more below:

VIA ESPN:

The Mavericks might not be ready to give up on the Jason Kidd experiment in Dallas.

Team owner Mark Cuban announced via his Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon that he was “getting ready to fly up to NYC for [a] Free Agent meeting at 12:01 [a.m.].” Sources with knowledge of Cuban’s plans confirmed to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein that the meeting is scheduled with Kidd at the first allowable minute of 2009 NBA free agency Wednesday morning.

Cuban’s pitch will precede a Kidd meeting with the Knicks in New York, according to the New York Daily News. Although the unrestricted free agent has indicated in the past that he would give Dallas the first chance to re-sign him, the 35-year-old Kidd likely has other suitors.

The Knicks face the challenge of going after Kidd and trying to sign their own restricted free agents, guard Nate Robinson and forward David Lee.

Kidd averaged 9.0 points and 8.7 assists for a Mavericks team that won 50 games last season. After steamrolling the Spurs in five games in the first round of the playoffs, the Mavs were taken out in five by the Nuggets.

Kidd was acquired by Dallas the year before, but that Mavs team lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Mavericks lost in the Finals in 2005-06 and then won 67 games the following season before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Kidd was expected to be the veteran piece to team with Dirk Nowitzki and get them over the hump when the Mavs gave up young point guard Devin Harris in a multiplayer deal with the Nets.

Kidd made more than $21 million last season. At 36, he knows to expect a dip — but how much could be the big difference. Another likely factor will be the length of the contract.

The Lakers and Cavaliers might only offer a one-year deal, dangling their hopes of a title as incentive. Kidd would then be a free agent again in 2010, meaning he’d still have a chance for one last big payday.

VIA HH:

There’s a new Cuban Missile Crisis. It has to do with the shots that continue to be launched between Dallas owner Mark Cuban and Denver forward Kenyon Martin.

A movie was made on the 1962 crisis called “Thirteen Days.” The way this one is going, it might last a lot longer.

“He’s a coward,” Martin said Saturday about Cuban, a week after Cuban made an unflattering comment to Martin’s mother during a West semifinal series, with Martin believing Cuban has yet to apologize in an appropriate manner.

Meanwhile, Cuban admits he “made a mistake” in having apologized to Martin’s mother on his blog and not having yet done so personally in a timely fashion. But Cuban, in an e-mail to HoopsHype.com, wrote he wants Martin to take responsibility for his actions, which he wrote included calling a wife of a Mavericks staff member a “(expletive) fat pig” and making an obscene gesture.

It all heated up May 9 after Game 3. After the Nuggets won a controversial game in Dallas, when the NBA later admitted a foul should have been called on Mavericks guard Antoine Wright and a game-winning three-pointer from Denver forward Carmelo Anthony wiped out, Cuban was incensed. He passed by Martin’s mother, Lydia Moore, and has admitted saying “that includes your son’’ when a fan called Nuggets players thugs.

Martin had been fined $25,000 by the NBA and assessed a flagrant foul 1 for a Game 1 incident in which he knocked Mavericks star forward Dirk Nowitzki hard to the floor [click here to watch the video!].

Following last Monday’s Game 4 in Dallas, the Mavericks’ only win in a 4-1 series loss, it has been reported Martin launched profanity in the direction of Cuban. Then, a few hours after that game, Cuban did get around to apologizing to Martin’s mother, doing it on his blog.

But that hasn’t sat well with Martin. Even though NBA commissioner David Stern has recommended Cuban apologize in a more direct manner, Martin said as of Saturday afternoon he knew of no additional apology having been made.

“He’s a coward,” Martin said about Cuban. “He couldn’t face it… You all read the only apology that he’s made (on his blog)… The world got to see it before the person who it was meant for got to see it. That tells you how that goes. I ain’t never known nobody apology to somebody through other people.”

Click here to read the full story and don’t forget to check out our ‘All-NBA Team’ gallery below:

VIA EUR:

The off the court drama going on in the NBA Western Conference semi-finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets is so thick, you can practically reach out and touch it.

Not only do you have the war between Carmelo Anthony’s fiancée, LaLa Vasquez and Mavericks fans [click here to read], you’ve also got the tiff between the team’s owner Mark Cuban and the Nuggets’ Kenyon Martin.

Martin, or Kmart as he’s known, unleashed a profanity-filled tirade at Cuban, who had ripped him before trying to make peace (see video below).

Apparently, the bottom line is that Cuban got personal when he told Martin’s mother that her son was a thug while leaving the court Saturday following a controversial non-call that resulted in Dallas losing Game 3 and falling to 0-3 in the series.

Cuban came to his senses and apologized for the remarks Tuesday, one day after Martin, a Dallas native, lit into him at the conclusion of Dallas’ Game 4 win Monday night at the American Airlines Center. In the same game, Carmelo Anthony’s fiancée was escorted from the arena.

While walking off the court, Martin looked in Cuban’s direction and said, “You better walk that way. You better walk that way you fa***t motherf****r. You gotta come to Denver, bi**h.”

To read the rest, please click here! Share your thoughts in the comments section!

After a rough night watching her fiancée Carmelo Anthony and his Denver Nuggets battle the Dallas Mavericks at the latter’s American Airlines Center Monday night, LaLa Vasquez is firing back in the form of a statement.

The MTV personality was ejected from the arena following an unspecified “incident” with some Dallas fans sitting behind her. She says the altercation aired on television took place only after she and her son were verbally attacked by nearby Dallas fans, who allegedly used racist language and even threw ice cubes at them.

She sent her son home early and was preparing to leave herself when she was physically pushed, according to a statement from her rep.

“Obviously the play-off games bring out the best and the worst in fans but what happened on Monday night with the racial slurs/threats, verbal attacks on my son and physical attacks to myself by irate fans was unacceptable,” LaLa said in the statement. “The fans were totally out of control. What the cameras captured was me defending myself and didn’t show the abuse that was taking place.”

The Nuggets and Mavericks meet again tonight for Game 5 – this time in Denver.