Mark Cuban apologizes to former player

Podcasts hosted by current and former athletes rarely generate genuine moments. However, The Roommates Show from New York Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart was an exception this week when former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joined the show to revisit his free agency negotiations with Brunson from 2022.

The situation was unique given Brunson had a breakout postseason in a contract year, which was followed by his father and Mavericks assistant coach Rick Brunson leaving for the Knicks. Initially, it looked as if Cuban and the Mavs cheaped out on offering Brunson a big contract, but ultimately it became clear he wanted to be in New York.

“The only thing that I didn’t like about the whole situation was when Mark said, ‘When the parents got involved, that’s when things are messy,'” Brunson said on The Roommates Show. “That’s the one thing where I was like, ‘damn, that’s a little jab.'”

Cuban then clarified his diss toward Brunson and his father and apologized for allowing the negotiation to become messy in public.

“I didn’t want to go there here, right, but it wasn’t a jab at all,” Cuban said initially. “There’s no reason for us to talk about any of that stuff, but it wasn’t just a jab, JB. For real.”

After Brunson mentioned how the comment about his parents hurt his feelings, Cuban apologized.

“I apologize. If it put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways,” Cuban said. “There’s definitely no hard feelings at all, but it was always interesting when your dad and I walked by each other, you know. It’s just like, he’d give me the eye, I’d give him the eye. Then we’d smile and keep on walking. But all’s well that ends well.”

Cuban also explained where his frustration came from, feeling that Brunson went from likely to return to suddenly as good as gone overnight.

“We were hoping we’d have a homecourt advantage. He’s been here four years, at least give us that opportunity,” Cuban said of the negotiation. “And then when it came down to it and it looked like you were going to go to the Knicks, it was like, really the only number that’s gonna make it work is a max-out contract.”

Cuban is a reliably good guest across the NBA media world and is usually pretty honest and vulnerable in interviews. But rehashing some difficult moments as an owner and executive in Dallas, including having his own words thrown back in his face, probably wasn’t easy.

Still, Cuban handled it like an adult and proved his relationship with Brunson seems pretty genuine.

These types of conversations were supposed to be the norm from the “New Media” led by athletes , but this exchange is a reminder of how rare authenticity really is, and how few of these types of inside stories are actually retold in real-time.

[ The Roommates Show ]

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