The answer, besides the fact that the 36-year-old point guard clearly can still play after a rock-solid showing last season, is status. And relevance, especially since it's the New York Knicks that the Mavericks are trying to one-up in the chase for Kidd.

Think of it this way: If you're the quarterback of the football team and you ask the popular cheerleader to the prom, but she goes with the president of the chess club, how would you feel?

That's what losing Kidd to New York would be like. Maybe the Mavericks aren't big men on the NBA campus. But as far away as they might be from contending for a championship, the Knicks are light years beyond that. If Kidd were to forsake the Mavericks for New York - and for less money - it would be a slap at the Mavericks' prestige.

Hey, if Mark Cuban's money is no good anymore, what's left?

This may not be the most important aspect of the situation. That detail about who plays point guard if Kidd doesn't return might be important to the Mavericks . J.J. Barea is great as a 20-minute guard. Not sure he's ready to guide a playoff team for 35 minutes a night, however.

But the Mavericks are dealing with critical issues with Kidd. Sign him and you have a legitimate chance to snag a big-time free agent in 2010. Lose him, and the chances diminish. Worse still, Dirk Nowitzki likes playing with Kidd. He liked playing with Steve Nash, too. The Mavericks do not want finding Dirk-friendly point guards to overtake finding Tony Romo-friendly wide receivers as the new local spectator sport.

Plus, in the NBA, money talks. It's always been that way, and there's no sign of it changing, especially in a lame economy. Cuban is offering a lot more money to Kidd than New York. There doesn't appear to be another serious contender for his services.

By the way, don't blame Kidd for taking his time on this decision. The longer he waits, the more chances somebody comes running with another offer. Plus, he can see what the Mavericks have in store. Perhaps there's a trade for Rip Hamilton out there.

Maybe Allen Iverson is available on the cheap, although that's a move that comes with obvious risks.

So keeping Kidd is paramount.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks feel confident they will win the rights for center Marcin Gortat, whom they have offered a free-agent contract worth the full mid-level exception.

The Orlando Magic can match the offer, but you have to figure the Mavericks learned from their mistake of 2003, when they offered Milwaukee restricted free agent Michael Redd a contract, but because it was only three years in length, the Bucks were able to match it with minimal financial impact.

It's logical that the Mavericks offered Gortat more than three years to make Orlando swallow a little harder to match the offer, although Cuban said the two were "totally different situations, but we are excited about the big guy.''

Indeed, offer sheets can be tendered for many reasons, including to make life tougher financially for the matching team.

But in this case, the Mavericks clearly want Gortat - and expect to get him.