Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban discussed Jalen Brunson’s 2022 free agency with Brunson himself during an appearance on “Roommates Show,” the podcast hosted by Brunson and his New York Knicks teammate Josh Hart . While both parties said there were no hard feelings, they offered contrasting perspectives on how the negotiations went down two years ago.
Some background:
- Brunson, who left the Mavericks to sign a four-year, $110 million deal with the Knicks that summer, has said publicly that he initially wanted to stay in Dallas . Both he and his father, Rick, who joined Tom Thibodeau’s staff as an assistant coach in New York shortly before Brunson signed there, have said that he would have signed a four-year, $55 million extension with the Mavericks had they been willing to offer it before the 2021-22 season or early that season. Brunson also said, in an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast , that, after seeing Cuban tell Marc Stein in an interview on Bally Sports that they could “pay him more than anybody,” once it actually became time to pay up, “it was crickets.”
- Cuban has publicly blamed Brunson’s father, Rick, for his departure , saying that “it went south” when “Rick took over” and “there was no negotiation” in the summer. Cuban has also implied that Rick, through Brunson’s agent, Aaron Mintz, demanded two days before the trade deadline that the Mavericks dump salary so they could renegotiate and extend Brunson’s contract.
- The NBA stripped New York of its 2025 second-round pick after finding that the team had “engaged in free agency discussions involving Jalen Brunson prior to the date when such discussions were permitted.”