Jason Terry: Season could be delayed

[CmWYNNE3]

Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry, a player representative with the NBPA, remains optimistic that fans will see basketball next year.

"I don't see us not having a season next year," Terry said at Friday's Blue Jays-Rangers game, where he threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

But Terry acknowledged that a delay to the season was possible due to negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

"(A) potential delay is definitely out there," Terry said, "but we have to train as if there's going to be a season. We know what we are now. We are champions. Everybody already was gunning for the Mavericks and they will be again."

Terry has seen other players opt for deals overseas and said he understands that each player has to do what he feels is best for him financially. But Terry isn't going anywhere.

"I'm not even looking," Terry said. "My season next year's going to be with the Mavericks. All the money in the world couldn't amount to being a champion and being able to defend that title next year."

Terry, wearing a No. 31 Rangers jersey and holding a bat signed by Josh Hamilton to be used for an auction supporting Terry's charity, said his top offseason priority if he were running the team would be to re-sign center Tyson Chandler.

"Chandler is No. 1 for me," Terry said. "We want to get all our guys back, but especially what Chandler has meant to this organization. It was something we hadn't had and once we got him, you could see what it did for us. So we got to get him back."

Terry said he's spent his offseason with his daughters, including coaching an AAU team and stopping by the ESPY Awards last week.

Terry also spent 48 hours with the Larry O'Brien Trophy and admitted that he slept with it one night.

"At 47, Cuban was in my driveway knocking on the door," Terry said. "It was fun. That's where it soaked in what we had accomplished -- seeing my daughters and how much it meant to my family. They took tons and tons of pictures."

Terry said he's not getting ready to be involved in a reality show.

"There is no truth to the rumor," said Terry, who joked he didn't want to try to compete with Shawn Marion's reality show.

Richard Durrett is a reporter and columnist for ESPNDallas.com.