Getty Image / Sarah Stier
During the NBA offseason, few teams around the league were as busy as the New York Knicks.
They made some big trades on draft day. They were repeatedly linked to a trade for Donovan Mitchell.
They even made one of the first big signings of the offseason when they signed Jalen Brunson.
However, there was some controversy that came along with that signing. The Knicks were quickly linked with Brunson at the start of the offseason and the move appeared to be a done deal before free agency began.
It didn’t take very long for the deal to be finalized once free agency opened and Brunson didn’t even bother to take a meeting with the Mavericks before signing with the Knicks.
The whole thing had many around the basketball world believing the Knicks had done some tampering to get the Brunson deal done.
Today, those suspicions were confirmed as the NBA announced that they would be taking away the Knicks’ 2nd round pick in 2025 as punishment for their tampering with Jalen Brunson.
The following was released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/qBA7JnwKlo
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 21, 2022
I’m sure the New York Knicks won’t mind the punishment too much. 2nd round picks don’t have the greatest hit rate in the NBA and they got a star in exchange for sacrificing that pick. They also still have plenty of draft capital over the next few years, so they really aren’t going to miss this pick.
Brunson has been everything the Knicks could have hoped for since he joined the team during the offseason. Brunson is averaging 20.8 points and 6.2 assists per game in his first 31 games with the Knicks and has been a big part of them returning to the playoff chase after a disappointing 2021-22 season.
If the cost of tampering with a player who could help you get into the playoffs is only a 2nd round pick, we might see more teams decide it’s worth the risk to tamper with the players they want.