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Mark Cuban apologizes to NY Knicks superstar for parents comment: ‘It wasn’t a jab at all’

August 31, 2024 | | Print Article

New York Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson confronted billionaire Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban this Thursday over something he’d said last year.

After Brunson left Cuban’s Mavericks last year, the billionaire was asked about the loss. In response, he blamed Brunson’s parents for essentially interfering.

“Where it [Brunson’s deal with the Mavericks] went south was when Rick [Brunson’s father] took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over,” Cuban said at the time.

Fast-forward to this Thursday when Brunson confronted Cuban over the remark as the two spoke on the basketball player’s podcast.

“The only thing that I didn’t like about the whole situation [that happened the year before] was when Mark said, ‘When the parents got involved, that’s when things got messy,’” he said. “So that was the one thing that I was like, I kinda was like, ‘Damn that was a little jab.’”

Cuban, to his credit, eventually apologized, but only after first proclaiming that he “didn’t want to go there” on the podcast, then saying that “there’s no reason for us to talk about any of that stuff,” and finally claiming “it wasn’t a jab at all.”

“I apologize if it put you in a certain way,” he eventually said. “That wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.”

Brunson admittedly disagreed.

“I would say it’s the same negotiation that we just went through with Isaiah [Hartenstein],” he said. “I would say it’s pretty similar. It’s over and done with. We’re here now, and that’s that.”

“There’s definitely no hard feelings at all,” Cuban replied. “But it’s always interesting when your dad and I walk by each other, you know, it’s just like he gives me the eye, I give him the eye, then we smile and then keep on walking, right? And so all is well and ends well.”

Listen:

It’s not clear why Brunson waited so long to confront Cuban. What’s known is that the billionaire faced massive backlash from the public after his comment last year.

Look:

During the podcast, Brunson’s co-host, fellow Knicks’ teammate Josh Hart, also asked Cuban why the Mavericks had drafted Brunson — whom he jokingly referred to as “the little fat-headed head from Villanova” — in the first place.

“We traded up to get Luka [Doncic] and we get [to] the number 31 [pick],” Cuban began. “And all the scouts were like, ‘JB [Jalen Brunson], JB, JB, JB. He’s a winner, yada yada. Little bit chubby, not quite as fast, not super athletic, but he’s a winner, he’s a champion. You can’t put a value on that. That’s our guy.'”

Listen:

Vivek Saxena
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