Shane Larkin clarifies his father's comments on Carlisle, Cuban

LAS VEGAS -- At this time last season, New York Knicks point guard Shane Larkin was on the sidelines due to an ankle injury. The surgery forced the then-Dallas Mavericks guard to miss his opportunity at NBA basketball in the Las Vegas Summer League. A year has passed, and Larkin is now a part of the Knicks. Larkin was acquired in the Tyson Chandler-Raymond Felton trade in late June. Shortly after the trade was announced, Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin spoke to the New York Post about the trade.

Shane Larkin wanted to clear the air on the comments.

"Let me clarify that situation," Larkin told ESPN Dallas. "My dad never said Coach Carlisle, [Mavs owner Mark] Cuban -- he never said that they don't know how to develop players because I got a lot better last year and I'm a lot better today than I was a year ago, regardless of the injury or anything. What my dad said was that the Dallas Mavericks are in win-now mode.

"Of course you're going to play Devin Harris, you're going to play Jose Calderon, you're going to play Monta Ellis, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki. You're going to play the guys who have proven themselves in the league."

The article quoted Barry Larkin as saying that "Dallas doesn’t do a good job of developing players. They’re in win-now mode. [Coach] Rick Carlisle doesn’t know how to develop young players, and Shane was a rookie. It always was a struggle for him to figure out what was going on."

The Knicks point guard went on to contradict the comments that suggested his father had negative feelings about the Mavs.

"My dad never said that Rick Carlisle is a dummy, [that] he doesn't know what he's doing," Larkin continued. "It's not like that. My dad was just saying that they're a veteran team, they're going to playing their veterans because they want to win right now. That's not saying Shane can't help them, but they're going with the guys that have already proven themselves. That's exactly what he said. Whoever said that my dad was badmouthing the Dallas Mavericks organization, that's a complete lie.

"My dad has mad love for everybody in Dallas. He called Coach Carlisle, he called Cuban and he told him that the reporter took it out of proportion. I just wanted to clarify it for everybody, everybody in Dallas. That's not what happened."

Larkin was presented early with an interesting situation as he got to face his former team in the first game of the Las Vegas Summer League. Larkin said that he certainly doesn't have any bad feelings toward the team he was with during his rookie season.

"They did what was good for them, what was going to make them a better team," Larkin explained. "Dirk is getting towards the end of his career, so they had to bring in players who could help him now. I completely understood the situation. They did what they did. Now I'm in New York, and I'm in a great situation where I can hopefully grow in their system and get better and hopefully just become a great player in this league."

Larkin gets a fresh start in New York, but he wanted to make sure Dallas knew that there wasn't any real bad blood.

(espn.com)