The NBA has begun an investigation into the Knicks for possible tampering related to the team’s free agent signing of Jalen Brunson, sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. According to Haynes, the league will attempt to determine whether New York made contact with Brunson before the free agent period started.
The Knicks signed Brunson to a four-year, $104MM contract last month. Days before free agency opened, word began to trickle out that Brunson was “widely anticipated” to sign with New York for a four-year deal exceeding $100MM, with multiple reports suggesting that the Mavericks had believed for weeks that the point guard was bound for the Knicks.
A June 29 report stated that Brunson planned to meet with the Knicks, Mavs, and Heat when free agency began, but the meetings with Dallas and Miami never took place, with the Heat disputing that they’d scheduled a sit-down at all with the former second-round pick.
We don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but the sequence of events created the impression that the Mavs and Heat knew Brunson would be joining the Knicks and didn’t want to waste their time, while the guard’s camp was trying to create the impression that a final decision hadn’t yet been made.
It’s not unusual for free agents’ presumed destinations to leak before the negotiating period officially begins on June 30. However, it raises eyebrows in the league office when the details of a rival team’s offer to a free agent leaks days in advance and there’s a publicly-reported widespread belief that the player will join that team. The Sixers are facing a similar investigation due to their free agency moves, including a contract agreement with P.J. Tucker that leaked early.
Brunson’s case is further complicated by the fact that he has personal relationships with so many people within the Knicks’ organization. Leon Rose represented Brunson as a player agent before he joined New York’s front office, and his son Sam Rose is now one of Brunson’s reps at CAA. Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father, was hired by the Knicks as an assistant coach several weeks before free agency began.
While the NBA has ostensibly made more of an effort to penalize teams for violations related to tampering and free agency gun-jumping in recent years, it’s not as if Brunson’s contract with the Knicks is in any danger of being voided.
The Bulls, Heat, and Bucks have all been penalized for similar free agency violations since 2020, and all three teams were forced to forfeit a future second-round pick. It will be surprising if the Knicks face a stiffer penalty than that once the investigation into their contact with Brunson is complete.
It will likely take some time for the NBA to announce the results of its probe. Last year, the investigation into the Heat and Bulls was reported on August 7 and the penalties weren’t announced until December 1.
got heeeem
2nd round pick penalty at best. This one is hard to argue since his father works for the team. Conversation is going to take place between the two and it would be difficult for the league to penalize a father/son relationship.
If Bronny gets drafted and Lebron signs with that team for a specific reported amount, are they going to penalize the team that signs him? Some cases make sense to investigate, but when there’s a direct family relationship, it’s hard to say otherwise.
I think having Leon Rose sit court-side at a Mavericks/Jazz playoff game after months of Brunson to the Knicks rumors adds another layer to obvious tampering.
Or perhaps he was there scouting Mitchell and if he wants to trade for him, like all the rumors suggest.
Sure. Because the GM and godfather to an upcoming top free agent (not a team scout) needs to do an in person scout of a star player (who wasn’t actively being shopped) with mountains of data and film available. All while in the middle of draft prep season.
Correct.
Leon Rose sitting court-side is not “contact”; therefore, perfectly legal.
I’d love to see you happily accept a jail sentence using the same evidence of guilt you want to use here.
The NBA should make an alternate penalty rather than taking away second-round draft choices, as doing this makes the draft a worse viewing experience for NBA fans, and also worse for young men waiting to hear their name called and not actually getting the chance.
I would have given those picks to the teams that were tampered with.
This summer so far
2 worst GMs
Lakers
Knicks
The hugest cities are not good enough to make noises in playoffs
I think Minnesota would like a word
Also Troy Weaver….
Rewrite the transaction as a sign and trade: Mavs get a trade exception and their 2023 1st back, Knicks hard capped and forced to operate as a team over the cap meaning they had to use their MLE on Hartenstein and it’s gone.
Ok let’s make this retroactive and take picks away from offending teams the past couple years.
The tampering rule in general is just stupid but in this case even moreso. How are you going to tell someone? “Hey, you can’t talk to your dad, your agent or certain close family friends.”
The players going to make his decision on where he’s going to play regardless of if a team contacts him before free agency or waits until the day of.
It’s not the “You can’t talk to your dad, your agent, or certain close family friends”. It’s that the framework of the contract was basically agreed upon before the negotiating period even opened up which is before free agency even opens up. But just because Brunson’s dad happens to also be the Knicks assistant coach doesn’t absolve either party of tampering. It’s not saying they can’t talk, they just can’t talk specifics of a contract at least before the negotiating period opens.
Not saying other players/teams don’t do this…I feel pretty confident saying close to half, if not more, of the deals that get reported on day 1 of free agency probably had some tampering go on but it seems like a lot of the NBA tampering cases involve some team filing/threatening to file a complaint such as Dallas this year and New Orleans last year. Can argue that its being petty but you need something to act as a checks and balances. It becomes a rabbit hole if you don’t try to stop it early. Teams will bend the rules as far as they can if they think they can get away with it.
The NBA asks that if you’re going to tamper, you do it quietly and in a not-so-obvious way. The Knicks basically gave the league the finger and said we’re going to be loud and brash about it.
Whether you agree with the rule or not, the Knicks chose to break it in such fashion. This will be an open and shut case for the league. The Knicks could not not have seen this coming.
It wasn’t hard to guess that the Knicks were going to go after Brunson, since they were known to be looking for a PG, and he had multiple prior connections to the team. They tried to trade up in the draft to get Jaden Ivey, and failed. Reporters will speculate rampantly; but as I recall every single “report” got at least one detail wrong.
For example, one of the main “reports” claimed he was going to sign for $110M. He signed for only $104M. The range was pretty easy to guess, as it had previously leaked what Dallas had offered.
link to hoopsrumors.com
Yet this same league nether penalized the Nets Lakers Sixers for their past actions (only now the Sixers recently) of course there is contact his father is a knick and Godpappy
If you’re serious about stopping tampering make the offending club have to surrender a first and second round pick.
Silver will always take the path of least resistance, principle be damned. I don’t know how that cuts here. On the one hand, docking a team a 2nd for signing a FA would be a first, and would perhaps set a dangerous precedent requiring the league to do a hard investigation of every FA signing reported before the FA start time, which is the majority of them. On the other, media types (and others with limited attention spans) have tried to characterize the NYK-Brunson situation as comparable to situations in prior years when a team was docked a 2nd. It’s not, of course, but, to Silver, reality is less important than perception. Hopefully, for the NYK, precedent, and his own sanity, are more important than both.
PHI (Tucker), and perhaps others, are in the same boat as the NYK, and I suspect will be treated the same (with any difference in result based on difference in the actual evidence). Anything less than a full acquittal opens the floodgates. All prior instances in which Silver’s lollipop police have found enough evidence of tampering to dock a team a 2nd involved S&T deals. Those are 3 party, 2 step, transactions, involving other players and assets. Evidence of early negotiations (vs actions short of that) with S&T deals is much easier to establish.
Brunson literally grew up in front of Knicks FO. His dad has worked for Thibs and works for him now. As soon as the bell rang he SIGNED ……. so what.
We got like 20 2nd rd picks. You really want one. Ridiculous lol.
Maybe add some teeth to the penalty. Take away a first round pick, not a useless second rounder of a contender. Yes, there are wonderful examples of late second rounders working out, but no one expects GM to take that seriously as a deterred.