Mark Cuban and Jalen Brunson Discuss What Went Down in 2022 FA

[SleepingHero]

Timestamp 45:27. Jalen's 2022 FA topic lasts about 8 minutes.

This was awkward as hell. I'm shocked both agreed to talk about it publicly. I REALLY hate this topic. It reminds me so much of the Steve Nash debacle and I hate bringing it up, but there are a lot of interesting moments here. 

First, JB the entire time keeps saying "my agent tells me Dallas hasn't replied". He also mentioned as soon as his dad got hired by the Knicks he'd regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't "give the Knicks a chance" at a meeting. Which stood out to me. 

Mark is saying the opposite, that they consistently kept trying to pull a number from the agent so that they could match but JB's agent refused to tell him anything. So much so that Mark said "we don't want to come to NYK for no reason, if you're willing to hear us out we'll come." Which stood out to me.

When you factor in that JB's agent is Sam Rose, the son of the Knicks GM and PBO Leon Rose, things get very interesting.   


Essentially Mark and Nico basically felt that JB had already made up his mind LONG ago before the Mavs even had a chance. There wasn't much new in this conversation, but it truthfully feels like to me that JB had his mind set on New York as soon as he had a chance. Feels like JB wanted to leave for NYK but didn't want to be made out as the bad guy.  The fact the Knicks got investigated for tampering and were fined in this ordeal kind of seals that fact.

Does this clear the Mavs Front Office for their sin of letting him go for free? No. Not at all. Brunson should've never hit unrestricted free agency and Donnie Nelson's oversight of JB's contract structure was malpractice. Further, I don't think JB's supposed interest in the Knicks was a secret. The Mavs should've traded Brunson (which I believe they tried) for whatever they could've gotten at that TDL.