In a lengthy, insightful, and revealing interview on Fanatics Sportsbook’s Roommates Show, New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson and former Dallas Mavericks controlling owner Mark Cuban hashed out the details of the infamous 2022 offseason. That year, Brunson left the Mavs after four seasons in Dallas. However, ever since he decided to sign with the Knicks, there have been plenty of theories about why that happened.
Ever the businessman, many believe that Cuban lowballed Brunson in an effort to cut costs. Brunson, looking to make a name for himself, was rumored to want to more scoring opportunities. These two theories aren’t conflicting; they can both be true. Still, until Brunson and Cuban’s sit-down, there wasn’t much clarity about the situation.
Mark Cuban, Jalen Brunson Confront Mavs-Knicks Saga Head-On
“From my perspective,” Brunson says, “after we played the game and lost Game 5 in the (2022) Western Conference Finals, I remember seeing on Twitter that Mark did a postgame interview. It was with our crew or whatever, and Mark was like, ‘Hey, we can pay him the most money.’”
“That was the main thing I saw from the interview: ‘We can pay him the most money,’” he repeats. “…You go into free agency, and you start seeing all these moves that the Knicks are making… Then, obviously, my dad going to the Knicks as an assistant coach, so I’m like, ‘Alright, that’s interesting.’”
“That’s something very unique,” the New Jersey-born Brunson admits. “…I just don’t know-how could I live with myself if I didn’t at least explore that option.”
“Once we got the number from the Knicks and everything… I didn’t hear anything else from the Mavericks…,” Brunson reveals. “And it wasn’t from the Mavericks,” he clarifies. “It was my agent saying to me, ‘Oh, they’re not giving us a number.’”
Giving his side of the story, Cuban tells Brunson, “We were like, ‘Give us a range; what’s the number?’ We put up a number… Hoping we’d have a homecourt advantage,” he admits. “He’d been here four years…”
“Then, when it came down to it and it looked like you were going to go to the Knicks, it was like, ‘Well, really, the only number that’s going to make it work is a max-out contract’…,” Cuban recalls.
The 66-year-old also noted that Brunson’s representation wanted the Mavs brass to come to New York. He and his colleagues were trying to figure out the purpose of the meeting, hoping not to make an empty trip. By the sounds of it though, Brunson or his team had already made their minds up long before Cuban was supposed to head there. If anything, they may have just been giving Dallas the final chance to make their case.
No Hard Feelings?
“I thought it would work out,” Cuban tells Brunson. “I honestly thought it would work out… but it didn’t and that’s okay. All’s well that ends well. I’m happy for you —the king of New York —and I’m happy for us.”
“That’s what it is: the NBA.”
Brunson then changed the mood of their powwow, saying “the only thing I didn’t like about the whole situation was when Mark said ‘When the parents got involved…things got messy’… That was a little jab––”
“Wasn’t really,” Cuban responded, clearly miffed by the comment. “I didn’t want to go there here… No reason for us to talk about any of that, but it wasn’t just a jab JB, for real”
“I’m just saying…I felt a certain way but I got over it. Obviously, that’s my parents.” Brunson added defensively.
Though his peace was perhaps on the verge of fleeting, Cuban sought to make amends.
“I apologize,” he says “…That wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of ways.”
Not letting up, Brunson claimed that it was the same type of negotiation that the Knicks went through with Isaiah Hartenstein. One of New York’s key players last season, Hartenstein signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder this offseason. Money was seen as the primary factor, with Oklahoma City offering him a three-year, $87 million contract.
As the owner of neither the Knicks nor Thunder, Cuban isn’t exactly privy to those conversations. Whatever information he’ll have gleaned will have been as a third party at best. Nonetheless, keeping the conversation cordial, he allowed that it “may well be.”
Brunson, the $157 million man, would then tell Cuban “it’s over and done with. We’re here now. And that’s that.”
From the sour expression on his face, it’s clear that there’s still a bit of bad blood between them. Yet, Cuban reflected on the positives of their relationship, saying “I’m happy for you… We still keep in touch. I’m always sending you congrats and this and that. So, I mean, there’s definitely no hard feelings at all.”
Not missing the chance to leave any doubts that he’s not bothered by Brunson’s success, Cuban parts from the podcast saying: “It’s always interesting when your dad and I walk by each other. It’s just like he gives me the eye, I give him the eye, then we smile and keep on walking.”
