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Following a very solid regular season that saw them finish fourth in the West, the Dallas Mavericks were dealt a massive shock at the opening of their 2022 playoff series against the Utah Jazz — they learned that Luka Doncic wasn't ready to suit up due to injury.
At that point, virtually nobody expected Jalen Brunson to put his superhero cape on and show the entire Mavericks community that they had absolutely nothing to worry about.
In those first three games without Doncic, Brunson looked absolutely spectacular, averaging 32.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from deep. He continued to look great even after the Slovenian maestro's return. Yet, to everyone's utter shock, a contract extension was never signed that offseason, and he ended up joining the New York Knicks.
According to his father, Rick, the Mavericks were the ones who declined the initial opportunity.
"I told him once the season is started, that's it," Rick said. "I told the Mavericks, 'Once the season is started, there's no contract talk,' and I went back against my word. In January, I thought he did enough where he deserved [the extension]. I said, 'Hey, take the money, man.' He wants security. He wants to live here. And they declined.”
"He didn't turn s—t down. Y'all declined first. When y'all came back to him, we said, 'Hey, we just want to finish out the season and go from there,'" he added.
Cuban claimed the Mavs were all-in on keeping Brunson
From today's perspective, the Mavericks made a historic front-office blunder. It didn’t take long for the Villanova product to show the entire world that he was worth every single penny of the four-year, $104 million contract he signed with the Knicks that summer.
Sure, Dallas still had Doncic anchoring their backcourt, and the subsequent arrival of Kyrie Irving temporarily quieted the critics, especially after the Mavericks marched all the way to the 2024 NBA Finals before falling to a superior Boston Celtics team.
Still, if you ask Mark Cuban, the franchise was completely all-in on keeping Brunson in Dallas, but claims the deal was made impossible by outside forces.
"Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over," Cuban said. "We thought that we could turn him around. We wanted to re-sign him and we wanted to keep the season going together. We thought, 'cause JB kept on telling us he liked being here. JB never gave us an indication. It was only the parents that were the issue. Even the agent said, worst case, we can do a sign-and-trade."
"We didn't know what the bid was," he added. "They never gave us a number. Knowing the numbers now, I would've paid it in a heartbeat, but he wouldn't have come anyway. There's just no possible way that it was about money.”
Brunson's historic run with the Knicks
Rick, who was born and raised in New York and played for the Knicks, joined Tom Thibodeau's coaching staff shortly after his son signed, which many immediately viewed as an undeniable connection.
While none of these behind-the-scenes details were ever truly official, it feels as though the father-and-son duo knew all along that they wanted to team up in the very city where they grew up. And honestly, who can blame them today?
In an absolute dream season, Brunson led the Knicks to both the NBA Cup and the NBA championship, cleaning out the trophy room by capturing the NBA Cup MVP, ECF MVP and NBA Finals MVP, while earning All-Star and All-NBA Second Team honors. In doing so, he snapped New York's agonizing 53-year championship drought in grand style.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks ultimately ended up losing Doncic down the road, leaving them to watch from afar as Brunson, by a twist of basketball fate, hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy before they ever could.
