Jalen Brunson finally will play his first game in his former home arena Thursday night, and the Knicks will return to Dallas for the first time since a historic collapse there without him barely one year ago.
Brunson, who left the Mavericks to sign a four-year contract with the Knicks as a free agent in the summer of 2022, sat out their lone visit there in late December of last season due to a hip injury.
The Knicks also lost RJ Barrett in the opening minutes of that game, and they flushed a nine-point lead with 33 seconds remaining in regulation before losing in overtime in a 60-point triple-double performance by Luka Doncic in their lone appearance at American Airlines Center.
Brunson was on the bench that night and received a rousing ovation during a first-half video tribute, but he will be on the court with the Knicks’ five-game winning streak on the line Thursday night against the Mavericks, who will be without Doncic (sprained ankle).
“That place meant a lot to me, it means a lot to me,” Brunson said after Tuesday’s home win over the Trail Blazers. “My first four years [in the NBA], they introduced me to the league, they gave me my chance, they built me up. The organization and those guys over there, they mean a lot to me.”
Of course, there also was a great deal of back-and-forth between the two franchises late last season, with the Mavericks tanking games and missing the playoffs to prevent a top-10 protected first-round pick from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade from conveying to the Knicks.
Former Mavs owner Mark Cuban also made headlines last April when he blamed Brunson’s parents, including Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson, for the point guard’s defection to the Knicks in free agency the previous summer.
“Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over,” Cuban said.
The “Shark Tank” star added that the Mavericks weren’t permitted to negotiate with Brunson and his agents before the free-agency period opened on June 30, and the former Villanova star inked a four-year deal worth $104 million.
“We didn’t know what the bid was,” Cuban said. “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.”
The 27-year-old Brunson returns to Dallas now with a strong case to receive his first All-Star designation this year after being overlooked for the honor in his first season with the Knicks. The reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week is averaging career highs in points (25.6 per game), assists (6.4) and 3-point shooting percentage (42.6) through the Knicks’ 22-15 start.
Brunson declined to answer a question Tuesday night about last year’s giveaway loss in Dallas, in which his former backcourt mate, Doncic, became the first player in NBA history with at least 60 points and 20 rebounds in a triple-double. That included an intentionally missed free throw and game-tying put-back by Doncic with one second remaining in regulation and seven more points in overtime.
NBA teams had been 0-13,884 over the previous 20 seasons when trailing by at least nine points with no more than 35 remaining in regulation, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
More than one year later, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau still was lamenting blown officiating calls from that loss.
“We had everyone out in that game … and basically, it was a free-throw rebound at the end of the game,” Thibodeau said after Tuesday’s game. “And I think that we had some calls go against us that were incorrect. I remember it vividly.”