{"id":130463,"date":"2025-03-24T14:19:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=130463"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:19:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:19:34","slug":"tim-mcmahon-mavericks-brunson-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/24\/tim-mcmahon-mavericks-brunson-blunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim McMahon Talks Mavericks’ Brunson Blunder in New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks will face off with the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. The game is somewhat important, as Dallas is fighting for their play-in lives in what has been a disastrous season. New York is simply playing out the string until the playoffs, sitting comfortably in the East’s third seed. Anthony Davis<\/a> may suit up for the Mavericks as he returns from an adductor strain, which adds some intrigue to the contest. However, what’s most interesting about the matchup is that these franchises have been inextricably linked for almost a decade now.<\/p>\n

In late January 2019, the Knicks traded<\/a> young big man Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> to the Mavericks in a seven-player swap as well as two first-round picks. The trade came after a torn ACL and a public feud between Porzingis and NY’s front office. The Latvian never panned out in Dallas but is now a key piece of the Boston Celtics’ championship team. New York used the 2020 first-rounder to acquire Immanuel Quickley<\/a>, who eventually was part of the trade for OG Anunoby<\/a>. The Knicks also were Quentin Grimes<\/a>‘ original team, and Dallas inexplicably dealt him for Caleb Martin<\/a> this season. Unfortunately for Dallas, these trade sagas pale in comparison to what went down in the summer of 2022. The Knicks franchise was saved, while the steady downfall of Dallas quietly began.<\/p>\n

Tim McMahon Talks Mavericks’ Brunson Blunder in New Book<\/h2>\n

In his new book “The Wonder Boy” <\/em>(which will be published Tuesday) about the rise of Luka Doncic<\/a> as a superstar in Dallas, Tim McMahon spends time detailing how the Mavericks let Jalen Brunson<\/a> slip between their fingers in the lead-up to his free agency in 2022. The Brunson saga is notable because it was just one of the devastating mistakes that Dallas has made over the past half-decade, which officially culminated in the worst trade in NBA History. When Dallas dealt Doncic to the Lakers<\/a> in the middle of the night, stunning the entire sports world, it closed the book on a confusing era of Mavs basketball.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMake it hard! You didn\u2019t. You made it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the Mavs bungled the Jalen Brunson situation from start to finish, an ESPN excerpt from my book \u201cThe Wonder Boy\u201d that publishes tomorrow. https:\/\/t.co\/efER66ilDt<\/a><\/p>\n

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) March 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n