Jaylen Brunson has officially signed with the New York Knicks. We know this because ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that he has agreed to terms on a four-year, $104 million deal. The past few days have been strange to say the least, with information trickling out bit by bit, then stories changing in the process.
At this point, it’s challenging to see how there wasn’t blatant tampering in the Jalen Brunson signing process. The large volume of reports and information that reporters can confirm indicates that the deal was made well before the start of free agency, which is not currently permitted under NBA rules. The NBA may be looking the other way with some light work around the rules, but everyone in the basketball world knew this deal was done Wednesday morning, if not sooner. It was everywhere from Tim Kato to Tim McMahon.
Which, of course, leads to counter reports. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported a story saying there will be meetings with Brunson and both teams, and oh by the way, the Heat could be involved. The Heat quickly denied any such interest or meetings. Brunson’s people then canceled the meeting, which they described as a means of distracting from the breach of the rules, thus confirming a significant breach of the rules. It got so stupid that two and a half hours before the official #WojBomb, Wojnarowski shared this:
Free agent Jaylen Brunson, armed with a five-year Mavericks offer worth more than $106 million, is headed to a meeting with the New York Knicks within an hour, sources told ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2022
But it looked like Brunson’s offer was from the Mavericks? They claim it was never officially offered. Shams Charania reported that the Mavericks have not made an offer. Marc Stein also confirmed that Dallas has not made an official offer. It turned into a circus that was not fun at all.
It’s worth noting that everyone involved on the Knicks side, including Jaylen Brunson, Leon Rose, Adrian Wojnarowski and others, have direct ties to the CAA agency. Strange things happen during any free agent courtship, Brunson may have chosen the Knicks long ago, and yet there’s something about New York’s fairly blatant disregard for the rules that even other teams find off-putting, at least according to Fred Katz from the Athletic on the Mavs Moneyball podcast.
I’m just deeply disappointed right now. Not with one person as usual. Rather, it all stinks. There are leaks from Brunson’s camp that he wanted even more opportunities and situations where there is even the slightest bit of jealousy end up making me a little sad. We were led to believe the vibes were flawless, only to find out later that maybe they weren’t a tainted item from last season just like that.
In the end, Brunson has to do what’s best for him. While we’ll certainly get back to the fact that Dallas clearly had a price tag that was too high for Brunson, all reports also seem to indicate that the Knicks were an easy choice for him.
I know I will miss his constant presence. It’s funny…longtime readers and listeners of our podcasts know that I’ve put an unfair amount of blame on Brunson for his decision-making. A friend told me for the better part of two years that it wasn’t that Brunson couldn’t play, but that Rick Carlisle told him his role was to score. And what do you know, under the direction of Jason Kidd, Brunson made a leap that we all have to watch in real time. His performances in Utah and against the Suns are ones I will remember for the rest of my life. He’s a special player and it just stinks that it had to end with this level of weird feelings and weird timing and source reports that make it hard to figure out what really happened here.
Go Jalen Brunson, we’ll miss watching you play.
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