New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, center, holds the Eastern Conference Championship trophy after Game 4 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
Mavericks fans have endured a lot. No team in NBA history has ever moved on from Hall of Fame-bound point guards quite like Dallas the last 30 years. And yet I still think there is something entirely new and strange and, for many, quite difficult about these NBA Finals.
I realize the San Antonio Spurs have had the stage for about a week now, and it feels like the first Victor Wembanyama Finals might be just cracking open a streak like Tim Duncan enjoyed. Our friends to the south already have five NBA championship banners, and there are more to come.
But while the 7-4 guy from France is all the rage, there’s this thing going on with the New York Knicks and a little point guard named Jalen Brunson …
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I don’t really even know how to explain this, but I feel like a lot of Mavericks fans will be cheering for Brunson. Such a nice guy off the court, such a ridiculously good player on the court. But everyone’s also having this nagging feeling at the same time.
Is Jalen Brunson’s exit the biggest mistake the Mavericks ever made?
I realize the Luka trade is a monstrosity, and I’ve called it worse than the Babe Ruth deal. It owns a special place, not just in NBA lore, but in the history of awful professional sports trades. And keep in mind that Doncic is 27 years old, so that full story is yet to be written.
But there was no trade for Brunson, not even the last-minute sign-and-trade owner Mark Cuban was counting on. The Mavericks could have paid him a four-year extension for about $55 million at the start of the 2021-22 season, and that would have been the end of it. Or they could have paid him that much during the season after Brunson had shown a bit of what he could do when Luka was hurt. Or, even after watching him score 41 in Game 2 against Utah with Luka out and helping Dallas to the Western Conference finals, they could have competed with or matched the money the Knicks were offering on a four-year deal.
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They didn’t. They just let him go. And, in its own way, that makes this worse than all the other mistakes.
It began in 1996 — yes, 30 years ago — when the Perot ownership group traded Jason Kidd in his third season to the Phoenix Suns. When Don Nelson was hired to coach the downtrodden club, the first thing he said was he wished they hadn’t traded their All-Star point guard. But Kidd never got past the first round in Phoenix, so there wasn’t any immediate pain. Dallas got Michael Finley in the deal for Kidd, and he was developing into the best player on a bad team.
By the time Kidd had moved to New Jersey and gotten to where Brunson is now — the NBA Finals — it was the spring of 2002. The Mavericks had advanced to the second round two years running with Dirk, Nash and Fin. They had fully recovered from the Kidd deal.
So two years later, the Mavs did it again. This time it was Cuban deciding a six-year deal for Steve Nash was too long. He would win two Most Valuable Player awards with the Suns but never reached the Finals with Phoenix. In fact, when Dallas finally broke through in 2006 for its first Finals trip, the Suns were their conference finals victims.
Painful for fans to watch him go, unnecessary to say the least, but Nash never reached the pinnacle with his team. Brunson has done that in spades.
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The Knicks are the underdogs in these Finals despite winning 11 consecutive games. Their two first-round losses to Atlanta were by a single point. They have closed out their three Eastern Conference series with margins of 51, 30 and 37 points.
There may be no one like Wembanyama, but no team has ever done anything like what the Knicks have pulled off, either.
Brunson is their undeniable leader, averaging 26.9 points and 6.6 assists per game. His Knicks playoff average after four seasons and 56 games is 29.2. Only Bernard King’s 31.0 is higher. In the hall of great Knicks, Brunson’s playoff scoring numbers are better than Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, Carmelo Anthony, Willis Reed, take your pick.
The 41 he scored for Dallas against Utah four years ago was no fluke. People still had trouble accepting that he could lead a team just like Luka could lead a team. Now he has taken one to the Finals just as Doncic did here two years after Brunson left. The Mavericks lasted five games against Boston and that was it. I suspect Brunson will keep the Knicks in play longer than that.
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Regardless, Mavs fans will be torn as they cheer for another great point guard that got away.