Before Jalen Brunson became an All-Star representing the New York Knicks, he cut his teeth with the Dallas Mavericks, moving from role player to Sixth Man of the Year candidate to starter.
Brunson's ascension with the Knicks has made for an intriguing retrospective back to his role with the Mavericks. Could he have stuck around in Dallas and contributed to their attempts at winning a title alongside star Luka Doncic? Or was Brunson limited as an at-best second option in Dallas?
It's all behind the two franchises now, with both in decent spots. The Mavericks appeared in the Finals in 2024 and the Knicks have made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals in two straight years after missing the playoffs entirely in eight of the nine years before.
Brunson had Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban on his podcast, and one of the topics covered was Brunson's 2022 free agency. Then, Cuban was the Mavs' majority owner and was heavily involved in basketball operations.
During the conversation, Brunson revealed one part of the negotiation that needled him a bit.
"The only thing that I... I didn't like about the whole situation was when Mark said, 'When the parents got involved, that's when things got messy.' So that was the one thing that I was like, I kinda was like, 'Damn that was a little jab.'"
Here is what Cuban said on the situation in April 2023:
Mark Cuban is blaming Rick Brunson for the Mavs losing Jalen Brunson in free agency, saying “things went south when the parents got involved.”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 5, 2023
Cuban says explicitly in the interaction that he, "didn't want to go there [on the podcast]," and that, "there's no reason for us to talk about any of that stuff," but apologized to Brunson saying, "I apologize, if it put you in a certain way, that wasn't the intention."
"It was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways," Cuban said.
Brunson obviously disagreed. "I would say it's the same negotiation that we just went through with Isaiah [Hartenstein]. I would say it's pretty similar."
"It's over and done with. We're here now, and that's that."
"There's definitely no hard feelings at all," Cuban said. "But it's always interesting when your dad and I walk by each other, you know, it's just like he gives me the eye, I give him the eye, then we smile and then keep on walking, right? And so all is well and ends well."
Jalen's dad, Rick, is a former player who serves on Tom Thibodeau's coaching staff with the Knicks.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jalen Brunson, Mark Cuban Clear the Air Over 'Jab' on Free Agency Negotiation.
