The Knicks Will Lose Their 2025 Second Round Pick For Tampering With Jalen Brunson

The Knicks will lose their 2025 second round pick as the result of the NBA’s tampering investigation into the team’s pursuit of Jalen Brunson this summer.

For months, the New York Knicks were connected to Jalen Brunson as a potential free agent target. The then-Mavs guard had grown up around the Knicks organization as his father, Rick Brunson, played for the team and was repped by now-Knicks president Leon Rose — and Brunson’s agent is Rose’s son.

However, it wasn’t until this offseason that it started to seem as though Brunson might really walk from the Mavs, as all signs until June had indicated they would meet whatever the asking price was. One of the first eyebrow raising moments was when the Knicks hired Rick Brunson as an assistant coach as he rejoined Tom Thibodeau’s staff after stints with him in Chicago and Minnesota. Then, reports began leaking out that the Knicks were prepared to offer Jalen Brunson more than the Mavs had set aside for his contract, and the tide steadily shifted to the expectation leading into the start of free agency being Brunson joining New York.

There were efforts to throw the league off of the tampering trail, such as reports of Brunson holding meetings in New York with the Knicks, Mavs, and Heat — only for those to be canceled once free agency started. Then, the agreement that had been reported was delayed for a few hours after free agency started. All told, the Knicks will happily pay the price of a future second rounder for Brunson, as he has been terrific for New York and has been a big part of their current 8-game win streak. As for the rest of the league, we now know the answer to whether your father can tamper with you, as that is apparently a “yes” albeit for a fairly minimal penalty.