Mavs: Knicks Could Be Punished for Tampering After $110 Million Jalen Brunson Signing

By Rick Martin First Posted: Jul 05, 2022 08:54 PM EDT

The New York Knicks may have tampered with former Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson before his free agency officially opened. And because of this, the NBA may be penalizing the team. The guard reportedly decided to leave Dallas for New York as the Knicks offered him a lucrative four-year, $110M contract.

NBC News reports that the story has plenty of layers to this, with Knicks executives using their connections to Brunson to offer him to play for New York.

The Knicks have hired Rick Brunson, Jalen's father, as an assistant coach. This also involves Knicks president Leon Rose, who is a longtime family friend of the Brunsons, as well as his son, Sam Rose, who is also Jalen Brunson's agent.

Several Knicks executives were reportedly in Dallas together with Knicks forward Julius Randle during the Mavs' playoff game against the Jazz.

Mavericks Reportedly Frustrated With the Knicks' Actions

This may just be a case of a team losing a player and being all upset about that player leaving. According to The Athletic, the Mavs are "quite frustrated" with the New York Knicks right now because the deal may have gone through while Brunson was still playing for Dallas and not yet allowed to speak with New York, as they were also not happy when Knicks executive William "World Wide Wes" Wesley showed up courtside during the Mavericks-Jazz playoff game.

Because of Dallas's frustration with the deal, the NBA's tampering enforcement may come in... if the Mavericks decide to file a complaint. If they do, the Knicks are likely to get investigated about their deal with Brunson.

If the Knicks tampered with Brunson while they were playing their Playoff series against the Utah Jazz, they might have violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which aims to protect teams while they are still competing.

However, it may also be possible that the Knicks did not contact Brunson at all while the Playoffs were happening, as the only evidence of them trying to contact Brunson is having their executives in Dallas during the playoffs.

There is a precedent to this though, as Los Angeles Clippers executives have reportedly been watching Toronto Raptors Playoff games in Toronto before Kawhi Leonard decided to leave Canada for L.A.

Jalen Brunson Stepped up for Dallas Last Season

Jalen Brunson is an excellent defensive guard who certainly made himself known last season. He stepped up in a big way for the Texas-based team following Luka Doncic's injury. When Doncic returned, Brunson was still playing well. NBC News reports that his loss would be a tough one for Dallas, as the Mavs will be limited to the taxpayer mid-level exception in order to find his replacement. This means that they might not be able to attract a player as good as Brunson.

Despite leaving the Mavs, Brunson is still thankful to the team and the city. He tweeted a thankful message to the Mavericks fans and followed it up with a tweet that is looking forward to his next chapter in New York.