Mark Cuban’s podcast look with Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart yielded a revealing second about what the Mavericks considered Brunson upon drafting the purpose guard.
Hart, jokingly, requested the previous Mavs proprietor why the group drafted “the little fat-headed child from Villanova,” referencing Brunson, and Cuban didn’t fairly disagree with that evaluation.
“We traded as much as get Luka [Doncic] and we get [to] the quantity 31 [pick],” Cuban mentioned, recalling the 2018 draft. “And all of the scouts had been like, ‘JB, JB, JB, JB. He’s a winner, yada, yada. Little bit chubby, not fairly as quick, not tremendous athletic, however he’s a winner, he’s a champion. You’ll be able to’t put a worth on that. That’s our man.”
Brunson took that in stride, laughing together with Hart after Cuban dropped “chubby” as a descriptor.
The present Knicks celebrity spent the primary 4 years of his profession in Dallas earlier than shifting to New York.
That got here simply after Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau employed Brunson’s father, Rick, to his teaching employees, main Cuban to say in April 2023 that “Rick took over, or the mother and father took over.”
Brunson introduced up these feedback on the podcast, main Cuban to apologize.
“The one factor I … didn’t like about the entire state of affairs was when Mark mentioned, ‘When the mother and father acquired concerned, that’s when issues get messy,” Brunson mentioned. “In order that was the one factor that I used to be like, I type of was like, ‘Rattling, that was a bit jab.”
The Knicks misplaced a 2025 second-round choose over tampering because of that negotiation, however after Brunson emerged as a bona fide celebrity, that was greater than a good worth to pay.
Brunson inked a four-year, $156.5 million extension in July, leaving $113 million on the desk he might have acquired by ready till subsequent summer season to signal.
“I apologize, if it put you in a sure method, that wasn’t the intention,” Cuban mentioned. “Nevertheless it was laborious to cope with. It was a novel negotiation in a whole lot of alternative ways.
“There’s positively no laborious emotions in any respect. Nevertheless it’s all the time fascinating when your dad and I stroll by one another, you understand, it’s similar to he offers me the attention, I give him the attention, then we smile after which carry on strolling, proper? And so all is effectively and ends effectively. … I’m joyful for you, the king of New York, and I’m joyful for us.”
