DiVincenzo’s Madison Square Garden return ends in awkward standoff

It appears there is no love lost between Donte DiVincenzo and his best friend’s dad.

The Minnesota Timberwolves guard returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time since being traded from the New York Knicks two weeks ago and had to be separated by Jalen Brunson from Brunson’s father and Knicks assistant coach, Rick Brunson.

As the buzzer sounded at the end of the Knicks’ 115-110 preseason victory, the players and coaches began to shake hands and embrace one another.

Except for the two guys who have known each other forever.

DiVincenzo and the elder Brunson got into a verbal exchange that didn’t seem too friendly.

Albeit it was brief and harmless, it was still something of note.

After the game, DiVencenzo didn’t want to focus on the exchange, shrugging it off.

“My relationship with Jalen, that’s my brother and my best friend,” DiVincenzo said. “That’s a separate relationship. I’ll talk about that privately, and figure everything out. But it is what it is.”

The Knicks star point guard and mediator actually said it was a positive encounter.

“I was right there,” Brunson said.

“It was words of affirmation.”

While it didn’t look to be words of affirmation that were being exchanged, DiVincenzo and the Brunson family share too much history for the quick exchange to be of actual disdain.

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DiVincenzo and Brunson were college teammates at Villanova, where they helped lead the Wildcats to the national title in 2016.

They were in the same recruiting class in 2015 and were even roommates during their freshman year.

DiVincenzo was a groomsmen at Brunson’s wedding last year.

They are basically family, the elder Brunson included.

No harm, no foul, just friendly banter.

The actual altercation between the two was hard to make out but you can clearly hear DiVincenzo saying to Brunson senior, “I was talking to Thibs.”

In reference to an earlier exchange between DiVincenzo and his former coach, Tom Thibodeau, where the former Knicks guard was shooting a free throw and heard saying to the Knicks bench, “That’s what happens when they let you run the show.”

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It was only a couple of weeks ago that the blockbuster trade of Minnesota’s All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns and New York’s Julius Randle and DiVincenzo went down, so the feelings are still fresh.

Clearly.

Both New York and Minnesota head into the season with legitimate title aspirations, and are hoping this is the trade they both needed to get done to get over the proverbial hump.

And if so, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that these two meet in June in a battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

And if that’s the case, someone better keep DiVincenzo and the elder Brunson separated.