Knicks’ Jalen Brunson Confronts Mark Cuban

New York Knicks points guard Jalen Brunson took his former landlord to task on the latest episode of the “Roommates Show.”

Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban was the latest guest on the show co-hosted by Brunson and Knicks teammate Josh Hart, and it figured to be one of the program’s most potential-packed guests to date. The guest spot lived up to the hype, as Brunson confronted Cuban about the verbal jabs at his family made shortly after Brunson signed a $104 million contract with the Knicks during the summer of 2022.

Cuban began Brunson’s NBA career when he drafted him with the 33rd overall pick of the 2018 draft out of Villanova. He spent four years in Dallas before his transfer to the Knicks began a cold war of sorts between the Mavs and Manhattan.

Whereas Cuban tried to turn bygones into bygones, claiming he was happy how things turned out for both his Mavericks and the “king of New York,” Brunson brought up one of his prior comments made in the heat of his North Texas departure.

“The only thing (that) I didn’t like about the whole situation was that Mark said, ‘when the parents got involved, that’s where things got messy,'” Brunson said (h/t New York Basketball on X). “I kind of was like, damn, that was a little jab.”

Brunson was paraphrasing, but Cuban did tell ESPN’s Tim McMahon that Dallas’ efforts “went south” once “parents” got involved: the Knicks hired Brunson’s father Rick as an assistant coach shortly before he signed and New York president Leon Rose is Brunson’s godfather (he was also Rick’s agent during the elder Brunson’s playing career).

Cuban’s Mavericks later accused the Knicks of tampering thanks to the Brunson hire and the league eventually charged New York with the loss of a future second-round pick.

Cuban tried to steer the conversation elsewhere, claiming he “didn’t want to go there here,” but Brunson, claiming that comments made him “feel a certain way,” did eventually coax an apology out of the “Shark Tank” star.

“I apologize,” Cuban said. “If they put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with, it was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.”

The two do seem to have let bygones be bygones: Brunson said that things are “over and done with” while Cuban insisted that there were “no hard feelings.” Cuban, however, couldn’t help but push in a last word, claiming that modern confrontations with Rick remain “interesting.”

Both the Knicks and Mavericks have flourished in the wake of the Brunson custody battle: the Knicks are one of three teams (alongside champions Denver and Boston) to win at least one playoff series in each of the last two seasons while Cuban’s Mavericks returned to the NBA Finals after a year’s playoff absence last June.

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