DeAndre Jordan emoji war: Clippers, Mavericks battle in tweets

The race is on. Free agent center DeAndre Jordan is the prize.

Hours before Jordan can officially sign with a team, Clippers' shooting guard J.J. Redick tweeted an emoji of a car, while Dallas Mavericks small forward Chandler Parsons tweeted an emoji of a plane. Clippers' superstar power forward Blake Griffin then chimed in, tweeting emojis of a plane, a helicopter and a car. And Chris Paul then tweeted emojis of a banana and a boat.

All four players are presumably making last-minute pleas to Jordan, a free-agent center, in an attempt persuade him to sign with their team.

Later, 37-year-old Paul Pierce joined in the silliness, though, apparently, he couldn't figure out how to use emojis so he tweeted out a photo of a rocket ship. Clippers assistant coach Mike Woodson added an emoji of a man swimming.

Jordan, who has spent his entire seven-season career with the Clippers, agreed to sign a four-year, $80-million contract with the Mavericks on Friday, but the commitment does not become official until Jordan  signs with the team, which can't happen until the NBA moratorium ends at 9:01 p.m. PDT Wednesday.

A group of Clippers is traveling to Houston, Jordan's hometown, in a last-ditch effort to reverse his decision, according to league executives.

None of the Clippers players was present during the team's meeting with Jordan last Thursday. Apparently they're trying to right things now.

Parsons, on the other hand, had been extremely active in trying to woo Jordan, and Dirk Nowitzki left a family vacation to attend the Mavericks' meeting with the former Clippers' big man.

Jordan led the NBA in rebounding (15 per game) and field-goal percentage (71%) last season, and also averaged 11.5 points, the most in his career.

The 26-year-old center helped the Clippers get one win away from advancing to the Western Conference finals for the first time in their 45-year existence.

UPDATE

12:42 p.m.: This story has been updated with tweets from Paul Pierce and Mike Woodson.

This post was first published at 12:15 p.m.