It was a weird week in Dallas, even before Tuna Mania overran the place. It was a weird one for the basketball guys, too.

Steve Nash, after 49 straight makes, missed a free throw Friday night. Then the Mavericks lost a home game, after a 12-0 start. Stranger still, both rarities were witnessed not long after it was learned that Don Nelson asked Mark Cuban for something, and Cuban said no.

Twice.

	It's not Mark Cuban's policy to talk contract extensions in midseason.

Once in the summer and again in September, Nelson asked Cuban to extend the coaching portion of his contract, which expires at season's end. Pressed on the subject in recent days by various media members, in lieu of losses to dissect, Nelson admitted that Cuban's preference to wait until next offseason to chart the future made him "uncomfortable." That led to even more stories and questions, prompting Cuban to schedule his own private sitdown with Nelson to clarify his position.

Of course, as a result of all that, the 22-4 Mavericks find themselves answering a bigger question today, in the shadow of the Bill Parcells-Jerry Jones-Dave Campo triangle: Does the team with the NBA's best record suddenly have its own unforeseen coaching controversy? Or, at the very least, a distraction to deal with?

"I am not at odds with Nellie," Cuban insists. "My feelings about Nellie or towards Nellie have not changed. I'm as happy as I could be with our start, and see no reason why things would change.

"Nothing has changed. Nothing bad is going on. I just won't discuss contracts with management in any of my businesses when they have a job to do. In most of my businesses, I won't even use contracts. If you are doing a good job, you keep it. That's the way I work."

It's no puzzler, really, to understand the way both parties feel.

After surviving two full seasons and two half-seasons without any success in Dallas, and overcoming prostate cancer to help guide the Mavericks into the NBA's upper echelon, Nelson is yearning to keep coaching -- for three more seasons, he says now. That's the role in which he can have the greatest impact on the franchise, since Cuban and son Donnie Nelson (the club's president of basketball operations) already handle a huge chunk of the personnel work. Seeing how refreshed he looks at 62, compared to where Big Nellie was at 59, it's no surprise he wants to secure his future today. It's also a fact that coaches everywhere get skittish about lame-duck scenarios; Boston's Jim O'Brien (with only a year left on his contract after this season) and New Orleans' Paul Silas (in his final year) are also eagerly awaiting (and highly deserving of) new deals.

Cuban, however, doesn't want to lock into anything now, having awarded Nelson an 11-year, $22 million all-encompassing extension in May 2000. Nelson got that contract after the Mavericks -- at 9-23 when Cuban agreed to purchase the team from Ross Perot Jr. -- finished the 1999-2000 campaign on a 31-19 tear. Cuban has said on numerous occasions since that he has little interest in job titles and that he gave Nelson the long-term deal to lessen the likelihood of such controversies. Going forward, having committed to that contract, Cuban prefers to evaluate the entire organization year by year.

Now for what they aren't saying publicly.

From Cuban's end, it's clear that he wants to see how the Mavericks fare in the playoffs before reworking anything, given that Dallas hasn't been competitive in the second round the past two springs despite ringing up 110 regular-season wins in that span.

	Nellie and Cuban have been a more compatible tag team than anyone envisioned when they were thrown together 36 months ago, which is why the relationship is bound to remain an owner-coach bond despite any current tension.

For Nelson, that stance has to sting, with the Mavericks off to their best-ever start and his star players lavish in their praise of his tutelage. Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, especially, credit Nelson's philosophy and faith in them during tougher times as key factors in both players' rise to All-Star status.

How will it all play out? Expect Nelson, stung or not, to coach the Mavericks for at least two more seasons, so long as the team continues on its upward arc. A first-round playoff exit is the variable that could change things, but it's a stretch to envision Nelson not coaching the Mavericks next season unless some of the key personnel changed as well in a far-reaching overhaul. Cuban knows that the harmony in the Mavericks' locker room, an unquestionably key factor in Dallas' success, is a byproduct of his shared efforts with Nelson. The contract, meanwhile, precludes Nellie from leaving town without compensation to Cuban, even if some team out there wanted to offer him a concrete three-year coaching deal.

The most likely scenario, then, continues to be Nelson chasing the championship ring he has longed for as a coach, while grooming an in-house prospect to take over down the road. The leading in-house prospect is Avery Johnson, with Donnie Nelson increasingly entrenched in his presidential duties. And Avery, remember, intends to play at least one more season.

It takes a strong, confident coach to share the marquee with a high-profile owner, as Parcells might soon find out with the Cowboys. Nellie and Cuban have been a more compatible tag team than anyone envisioned when they were thrown together 36 months ago, which is why the relationship is bound to remain an owner-coach bond despite any current tension.

"It's not the way I would do it," Nelson said of waiting until the summer to cement the club's plans. "But I think it's best for me to just leave it alone and keep plugging away and try to win a championship."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.