Jalen Brunson, Mark Cuban focus on free company saga as Knicks star opens up about 'little jab' from Mavs proprietor

Dallas Mavericks minority proprietor Mark Cuban mentioned Jalen Brunson’s 2022 free company with Brunson himself during an appearance on “Roommates Show,” the podcast hosted by Brunson and his New York Knicks teammate Josh Hart. Whereas each events stated there have been no onerous emotions, they supplied contrasting views on how the negotiations went down two years in the past.

Some background: 

• Brunson, who left the Mavericks to signal a four-year, $110 million take care of the Knicks that summer season, has stated publicly that he initially wanted to stay in Dallas. Each he and his father, Rick, who joined Tom Thibodeau’s employees as an assistant coach in New York shortly earlier than Brunson signed there, have stated that he would have signed a four-year, $55 million extension with the Mavericks had they been willing to offer it earlier than the 2021-22 season or early that season. Brunson additionally stated, in an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast, that, after seeing Cuban tell Marc Stein in an interview on Bally Sports that they might “pay him greater than anyone,” as soon as it really turned 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 summertime. Cuban has additionally implied that Rick, by way of Brunson’s agent, Aaron Mintz, demanded two days earlier than the commerce deadline that the Mavericks dump wage so they might renegotiate and lengthen Brunson’s contract.
• The NBA stripped New York of its 2025 second-round pick after discovering that the group had “engaged in free company discussions involving Jalen Brunson previous to the date when such discussions had been permitted.”  

On “Roommates Present,” Brunson and Cuban say they’ve already had “a pair” of personal conversations about all of this. Brunson begins telling his facet of the story by reiterating that, on the app then often called Twitter, he’d seen the interview Cuban had accomplished evening that Dallas’ season ended. 

“That was like the primary factor I noticed from the factor that he did: ‘We will pay him probably the most cash,'” Brunson stated. 

“And that is a reality,” Cuban stated.

Brunson went on: “So I noticed that, and clearly you go into free company and also you begin seeing all these strikes that the Knicks are making and all that stuff, after which clearly my dad going to the Knicks as an assistant coach. So then I am like, ‘All proper, that is attention-grabbing.’ Like, that is one thing that, like, may be very distinctive, and, like, I simply do not know — how may I stay with myself if I did not not less than discover that possibility? That is one, OK. And so we go into free company, proper, after which I’ve a gathering with the Knicks, after which after the Knicks there was a scheduled assembly with the Mavs. Is the whole lot I am saying factual thus far, Mark?”

Cuban stated it was “kinda, sorta” factual, however, when the Mavericks had been requested to fly to New York for a gathering, they wished to know the place issues stood — and Brunson’s facet wouldn’t inform them.

“We had been like, ‘OK, however what are we going to debate? We have to have some reference on what we’ll be speaking about if we come to New York,'” Cuban stated. “We’re like, ‘We wish to hold him, we wish to hold him, however we’re not going to only present up in New York for you simply to say no.’ And, like I instructed you, there was a time the place it was, ‘OK, what’s the quantity? Give us a really feel.’ [The response was,] ‘Properly, cannot speak to JB, he’ll a marriage.’ And that was just about the final we heard.”

Brunson stated that he received a suggestion from New York, and he was below the impression that Dallas merely declined to make a suggestion of its personal. “As soon as we received the quantity from the Knicks and the whole lot — like I stated, I will hold saying this: From Jalen Brunson’s perspective, I did not hear anything from the Mavericks. And it wasn’t from the Mavericks, it was my agent saying to me, ‘Oh, they are not giving us a quantity,’ all that and the third. And so, yeah, I simply, at that time I simply selected the Knicks.”

Cuban, echoing what he instructed the Dallas Morning News, ESPN and The Athletic in April 2023, stated that Brunson’s camp would not inform Dallas what New York’s supply was, so it did not have an actual alternative to re-sign him. “We weren’t listening to again from Aaron,” he stated. “We had been like, ‘Give us a spread. What’s a quantity?’ We put up a quantity, they stated, ‘Too low.’ After which we had been like, ‘Properly, the place can we should be?’ We had been hoping we would have a home-court benefit, proper? He’d been right here, you understand, 4 years. No less than give us that chance.”

Then Cuban stated one thing that he hadn’t stated beforehand: On the final minute, Brunson’s facet requested for a full max. 

“After which when it got here right down to it and it regarded such as you had been going to the Knicks, it was like, ‘Properly, actually, the one quantity that is going to make it work is a max-out contract,'” Cuban stated. “And that was the final of it. ”

Cuban stated that he and Brunson “have all the time gotten alongside” and “there is not any grudge to carry,” regardless that “it did not work out the way in which I believed it could.” Brunson identified that the Mavericks made the NBA Finals this 12 months, so issues have “labored out nice” for either side. Cuban stated that he is completely satisfied for Brunson, however he “actually, actually, actually” thought they had been going to achieve a deal two years in the past, particularly after “a bunch of us,” together with Brunson’s now-wife, Ali, had been strolling and speaking following a playoff sport in Utah.

The “solely factor” that Brunson stated he “did not like in regards to the state of affairs” was Cuban speaking about his father’s involvement.

“I type of was like, ‘Rattling, that was slightly jab,'” Brunson stated.

“It wasn’t actually,” Cuban responded. “No, I did not wish to go there right here, proper? It wasn’t a jab in any respect. I imply, there is not any motive for us to speak about any of that stuff, but it surely wasn’t only a jab, JB. For actual.”

Brunson stated that he “felt a sure means” when he heard about it, however he has since gotten over it. 

“And I apologize. If it put you in a sure means, that wasn’t the intention,” Cuban stated. “Nevertheless it was onerous to take care of. It was a singular negotiation in numerous alternative ways.”

Brunson then in contrast his exit to Isaiah Hartenstein leaving New York for the Oklahoma City Thunder this summer season, reiterating that “it is over and accomplished with” now. 

“And I am completely satisfied — actually I am completely satisfied for you,” Cuban stated. “I imply, like, whenever you received married — we nonetheless be in contact, I am all the time sending you congrats and this and that, so, I imply, there’s undoubtedly no onerous emotions in any respect. Nevertheless it’s all the time attention-grabbing when your dad and I stroll previous one another. You realize, it is identical to, he offers me the attention, I give him the attention, then we smile after which carry on strolling. And so, yeah, all’s nicely that ends nicely.”

To recap: Brunson and Cuban did not tackle the talks between the 2 sides a couple of contract extension (nor the truth that Cuban had known as the assertion — made by each Brunson and his father — that his camp had approached the group about it through the first half of the 2021-22 season “an absolute 100% lie”). Neither Cuban’s perspective on Brunson’s free company — that Brunson’s camp shut the Mavericks out of negotiations and so they did not have a good likelihood to re-sign him — nor Brunson’s perspective on his free company — that his agent introduced him a suggestion from New York and he by no means heard from Dallas — appear to have modified within the final two years, however they’ve now expressed these factors of view to one another for the general public to see. 

If there’s something genuinely new right here, it is that, based on Cuban, Brunson’s camp communicated to the Mavericks that they might hold him by providing the max. In hindsight, that will have been a wise transfer, however it could have appeared insane on the time, as he hadn’t but grow to be the famous person he’s right this moment.