The NBA was soft on the Knicks, stripping them of a second-round draft pick for the Brunson deal

The NBA has shown once again that while it cares about legality, it does not want to exhaust its strictness on some points. The latest evidence came when the Knicks were fined for failing to follow due process before reaching agreements with Jaylen Brunson and getting him off the Mavericks.

So the NBA punished the Knicks by taking a second-round draft pick from the 2025 NBA draft with the smallest possible penalty they could issue. Among other things, after the league said it was investigating the deal, the New Yorkers risked a fine of up to $10 million, while there was a possibility that a member of Knicks management would even be suspended if the contract was terminated. However, the NBA decided to take the… usual route of removing a prospective second-round draft pick.

It’s recalled that the Knicks didn’t even get into the process … to hide they were interested in Brunson and – illegally – began talks before July 1, with a series of events showing their moves. Of the addition of Branson’s father to the team’s coaching staff in early Juneright down to the fact that the Young Guard’s manager is Sam Rose, who happens to be the son of…Knicks President Leon Rose, but also that the The Knicks decided to release Noel and Burks’ contracts on June 29 to make room at the salary cap to allow the deal to move forward.