Mark Cuban Blamed Jalen Brunson’s Dad, Knicks Assistant Rick Brunson, For Extension Talks Going ‘South’

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.

There are, apparently, some text messages that Cuban showed to Townsend that allegedly support these claims.

(Update: These texts, per Townsend, were between Cuban and Mavs GM Nico Harrison, and not anyone who represents Brunson.)

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’s comments come one day after Luka Doncic told the media that the Mavericks miss Brunson “a lot.”

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