Lamar Odom had an exchange with Mark Cuban during halftime of Saturday's game against Memphis. The incident led the Mavericks to decide to part ways with Odom.

''Just his response to it. Everybody goes through ups and downs. Every player does. We tried to put him in a position to succeed. ... It didn't work,'' Cuban said.

Odom had played four minutes in the first half, which Cuban described as uninspired.

''I just asked him, does he want to go for it or not. Is he in or is he out? I think he thought we were playing poker. I just didn't get a commitment. And that was the end,'' Cuban said. ''This was a big game for us, and he wasn't connecting to that. And if you're not positive energy, you're negative energy.''

Odom averaged career lows with Dallas and also was late for numerous team practices and meetings.

''He didn't want to play. He decided to go elsewhere or do something else. Now we regroup and go forward,'' Cuban said. ''We kept on hoping things would turn out right. It just got to the point where there weren't enough games in the season to try to find out.''