The Dallas Mavericks’ inability to keep Jalen Brunson last offseason has been pretty well-documented. Brunson, on the heels of a breakout 2021-22 campaign, hit unrestricted free agency and decided to join the New York Knicks on a 4-year, $104 million deal. Much has been made of the Mavs missing opportunities to extend Brunson before and during the season, while the Knicks had no qualms making their intention to pursue Brunson clear, to the point that they hired his father, longtime NBA assistant coach Rick Brunson, to serve as an assistant under Tom Thibodeau.
Fast forward to today and New York is clinched a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, while Dallas is going to need a lot of help down the stretch run of the regular season to sneak into the play-in. While that’s going on, Mavs owner Mark Cuban decided to speak to the media on Wednesday before the team plays the Sacramento Kings, and claimed that Brunson’s father played a major role in negotiations imploding.
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
As for the summer free-agency period, Cuban says the Mavs were never given a number that Brunson would accept, so there was no point in going to NY to negotiate.
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) April 5, 2023
Cuban says he had a great relationship with Jalen Brunson and his representatives, but the problems started, Cuban says, when Brunson’s father Rick took over negotiations.
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) April 5, 2023
There are, apparently, some text messages that Cuban showed to Townsend that allegedly support these claims.
Cuban showed the DMN text messages from Brunson’s representatives to support his assertions about how Brunson’s departure went down.
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) April 5, 2023
Cuban had one more trick up his sleeve, too, revealing that the team never had a chance to give Brunson the reported 4-year, $56 million extension that has been speculated.
Cuban also says in a pre-game media session that the Mavericks “never had the opportunity” to re-sign Jalen Brunson on a four-year, $56 million extension in the weeks before the trade deadline as has been previously reported. https://t.co/HV1OFICPcF
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 5, 2023
Cuban’s comments come one day after Luka Doncic told the media that the Mavericks miss Brunson “a lot.”