Fight Over NBA Star DeAndre Jordan Turns Into Emoji War

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

NBA free agency is often chaotic, even dramatic.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

For DeAndre Jordan, it was just plain weird.

SIEGEL: The 26-year-old center became a free agent after finishing his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. A few days ago, he verbally agreed to go to Dallas to play for the Mavericks. However, free agents had to wait until today to sign contracts.

MCEVERS: So the Clippers staged an 11th-hour push to keep DeAndre Jordan. And of course, this all had to play out on Twitter.

SIEGEL: Here's what happened. The Mavericks' Chandler Parsons tweeted an emoji of a plane to announce that he was flying to DeAndre Jordan's house in Houston to ward off any Clippers from coming.

MCEVERS: Then the Clippers' J.J. Redick tweeted a car emoji to announce he was driving from Austin.

SIEGEL: Cindy Boren is a sports and social media editor for The Washington Post. She watched this unfold in real time.

CINDY BOREN: All of a sudden, you started seeing NBA players tweeting emoji of transportation.

SIEGEL: An emoji war was on.

MCEVERS: Even Clippers vacationing in the Bahamas chimed in.

BOREN: Then to cap it off, Chris Paul tweeted a picture of a banana boat.

SIEGEL: Eventually, many Clippers did reach Jordan's house by banana boats, planes and automobiles.

MCEVERS: They holed up there all night. At one point, star forward Blake Griffin tweeted a pic of a chair blocking Jordan's front door. Again, Cindy Boren.

BOREN: I think people on Twitter were saying (laughter) it looks like the Clippers are sort of holding him hostage.

SIEGEL: Or having an NBA slumber party. At 12:01 this morning, DeAndre Jordan agreed to a new contract with his old team. Lots of smiley faces for Clippers fans.

MCEVERS: And one giant sad-face emoji for Mavericks fans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.