Texas Love Triangle

— -- Any mention of the Texas Triangle, in NBA circles, has always had a very specific meaning.

Until this past summer.

No longer does the term exclusively reference the most dreaded three-stop road trip that the schedule can serve up, thanks to the Lone Star State love triad that dribbled its way into the basketball lexicon in July.

Cuban. Parsons. Morey.

Yet the season's first face-to-face encounter for Mark Cuban and Daryl Morey, after their tug-of-war over Chandler Parsons and the verbal sparring that inevitably followed, will have to wait. Morey is away this week on team business, meaning he won't be with the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night when they open their 2014-15 exhibition season against Cuban's Dallas Mavericks and their new small forward.

Cuban, mind you, insists that those expecting fisticuffs, or anything close, would have been disappointed anyway.

Says Cuban: "Is it competitive? Yes. Do I hate Daryl? No. I have a lot of respect for Daryl. Daryl's not one to hate at all. That's not his mode. He's very, very logical.

"Daryl Morey is the Spock of the NBA. I didn't originate that; someone else told me that. He's the Spock of the NBA because he's talking about logic all the time."

Fans of trash talk needn't worry, though. If recent history is any guide, as re-traced in depth below, things won't stay conciliatory between the Mavs and Rockets for long.

Parsons' Perspective | Dallas' Drought | Rockets' Dice Roll | The Contract | The Rivalry