“My main focus is winning right now. That’s what they’re trying to do, is win games.” Rashard Lewis, Seattle free agent, on his interest in joining the Mavericks

I know what Rashard Lewis did a couple of summers ago.

Just two years out of suburban Houston’s Alief Elsik High School, yet already two years into his NBA career, Lewis had an opportunity to leave the Seattle team that drafted him. Toronto was knocking at his door with what was a contract worth at least $40 million.

But Lewis turned it down to stay with the Sonics for a less lucrative deal. He did so, he explained again recently, out of the understanding that the Sonics would reward his loyalty with a monster contract come now.

Lewis’s idea of monster is, apparently, something like $90 or $100 million. The Sonics idea of monster is something closer to $60 or $70 million.

As a result, Lewis accepted Mark Cuban’s invite the other day to check out the Mavericks’ digs in Dallas and consider playing along side Finley, LaFrentz, Nash & Nowitzki for about $15 million and another promise for one of those monster contracts a few years down the line.

If Lewis accepts the Mavs’ salary cap-restrained offer, he ought to be awarded some sort of Purple Heart from sports fans and some sort of dunce cap from sports agents. For it would mark the second time he’s left something like $35 or $40 million on the table to follow his desire to just win.

It’s not just pro athletes who don’t do that kind of thing. Neither you nor I would do that kind of thing because, to put it mildly, it just doesn’t make sense.

So I’m hard pressed to believe that Lewis, at the tender age of 22, is all about the jewelry and not interested in the Benjamins alone. It would be a nutty move. For if Lewis signed up in Dallas, it would take him three years to get back to the earning position he is in right now with Seattle. And one rule of economics is that the same dollar today is worth less tomorrow.

But give Cuban credit once more for keeping his eyes and wallet open to any and every opportunity, no matter how remote, of improving his team’s ability to compete for a championship. Every supportive sports fan ought to be so blessed with such ownership.

After all, everybody knew Lewis would be a free agent, though a restricted one, this summer. But not too many NBA executives figured he’d actually be open to relocating. Even fewer were prepared to act if he was. And only one, Cuban, really did.

Cuban even went so far as to do what he suggested he’d never do to recruit a free agent. He staged a pep rally at the airport to welcome Lewis to his home state and another one outside the Mavericks’ locker room.

It certainly would be a coup if Cuban hit what even he admitted was a long shot chance of signing Lewis. He would be getting one of the hottest young players in the league. And the Mavericks would be getting him for less than he would make in Seattle next season and for just $15 million over three years.

What a steal Lewis would be. If he turns down Seattle for Dallas, he won’t be invited to the players parties, either. He will have set a precedent in contract negotiating they wouldn’t be fond of.