Knicks get slap on wrist in Jalen Brunson tampering probe
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson dribbles the ball up court against Golden State in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The NBA finally announced a decision in the tampering investigation surrounding the Knicks'' free agency pursuit of Jalen Brunson in the summer, handing down what amounts to a slap on the wrist — rescinding the Knicks' 2025 second-round draft pick.
According to the NBA’s statement, “This outcome reflected a finding, following an investigation, that the Knicks engaged in free agency discussions involving Jalen Brunson prior to the date when such discussions were permitted.”
A league source said that the investigation included three parts — looking into the signing of Jalen Brunson, the signing of fellow CAA client Isaiah Hartenstein and the hiring of Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, as an assistant coach weeks ahead of free agency. The league only found issue with the timing of talks involving Jalen’s free agency.
It was a strange case from the start with family ties prevalent in the signing. The Knicks did hire the elder Brunson, but it could hardly be pointed to as a selling point because Rick Brunson already had been with Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau in New York when Thibodeau was an assistant and he was a player, then in Chicago and Minnesota as an assistant coach on Thibodeau’s staff.
When Brunson agreed to a four-year, $104 million deal with the Knicks the Dallas Mavericks, at least publicly, did not hold a grudge.
“No hard feelings. I wish him nothing but the best,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said, standing courtside at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. “You bust your [butt] and you have that choice. He deserves it.
“It happens. It’s the way this league works. It’s a business. You trade a player, you say it’s a business. You lose a player, it’s a business. It’s just the way it goes.”
Cuban brushed aside the notion at that time that he would be filing any charges.
“That’s all the league stuff,” he said. “That’s not for us to say. It’s up to them.”
There have been whispers throughout the league that the Mavericks were upset that Knicks vice president William Wesley was sitting in the front row at a Mavericks playoff game, but Cuban dismissed that.
“Somebody asked me . . . ,” he said. “I’m like, I don’t give a [expletive]. Why would I care? It’s not like, ‘OK, we don’t go to the playoff game, that changes what we think and what we’re doing.’ I don’t care.”
For the Knicks, the cost of the inquiry is a small price to pay for Brunson, who has helped turn the team around, leading on and off the court as the team took an eight-game winning streak into Wednesday’s game against Toronto. The team also has stockpiled plenty of picks — holding 11 first-round picks and nine second-rounders in the next seven drafts.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
