Mark Cuban wanted Tony Romo to actually play in Tuesday's game for the Dallas Mavericks.

Romo recently retired to join CBS as a game analyst.

"I told him what I was going to do and said, 'Fine me if you don't like it.'"

Silver told Cuban the contract would not be honored, which killed the idea but did not stop the Mavericks from honoring Romo.

Romo dressed for the game and warmed up with the Mavericks.

"Signing him and stuff like that, would have been too much for a lot of reasons," Rick Carlisle said. "No. 1, he's a football athlete that's not ready to play in an NBA game. That's very risky. No. 2, to sign a guy with all of our requirements from a physical standpoint with the hours and hours of screening and all that kinds of other stuff, it just wasn't worth going there. And that's not really what this is about."

Romo was an excellent basketball player in high school.