Not only did the Lakers extend max contract offers to LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh, they apparently also offered the same deal to Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki.

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Lakers and the Houston Rockets offered Nowitzki a max contract; however, he rebuffed both teams and has signed a 3-year, $25M deal to stay in Dallas.

Story going online now detailing how Rockets AND Lakers called w/max offers for Nowitzki, but he rebuffed all outside interest to stay w/DAL — Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 15, 2014

The Lakers certainly have never been scared to throw big money at superstar caliber players, even at the latter stages of their careers. It’s worth our time to recognize that Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers front office made an attempt to lure the biggest names in free agency to Los Angeles. However, something is clearly missing in Lakerland.

It was unlikely that Dirk was ever going to leave Dallas, especially because of the bond between Nowitzki and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. However, this 3-yr, $25M deal is about $5M less than Dirk was expected to sign earlier in the summer. In essence, this is a sweetheart deal for the Mavericks.

Nowitzki could have commanded, and was offered, about 4-years and upwards of $80M on the open market. However, he has played with the Mavericks for his entire career and instead chose to gift the franchise more cap space, a la Tim Duncan.