Donte DiVincenzo’s return to the Garden turned into a feisty mess involving his best friend’s father.
DiVincenzo and Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson got into a heated exchange and needed to be separated following Sunday night’s 115-110 Knicks preseason victory.
Video of the incident showed Brunson pointing and speaking at DiVincenzo in the postgame scrum on the court.
Brunson then walked toward DiVincenzo as members of both teams got in the middle.
“Some words. I don’t know fully well what was said,” DiVincenzo said after facing the Knicks for the first time since he was traded last month. “A lot of people there. But I really have no comment on the situation. I think we’ll both be men and talk about it privately.”
Jalen Brunson, the Knicks star point guard, was a peacekeeper during the incident.
He first tried to lead away DiVincenzo, his former roommate at Villanova, and then stood adjacent to his upset father toward the end of the exchange.
Just a year ago, DiVincenzo was a groomsman at Jalen’s wedding.
“My relationship with Jalen — that’s my brother, my best friend,” DiVincenzo said. “That’s a separate relationship. I said I’ll talk about that privately and figure that out.”
Jalen tried to downplay the incident.
“Two people talking,” he said. “Words of affirmation.”
Earlier in the game, DiVincenzo was spotted on TV camera trash-talking with the Knicks bench as he took free throws.
He first glanced at Thibodeau after converting an and-1 and said, “Can’t finish, right Thibs?” DiVincenzo then turned to the Knicks bench – where Rick Brunson was seated – and said, “That’s what happens when they let you run the show.”
DiVincenzo declined to reveal the target but Rick Brunson has been rumored as a proponent of the trade to acquire Towns.
“I didn’t say thanks for the trade. It was about a finish, I was joking with Thibs about not being able to finish,” DiVincenzo said. “He was giving me a hard time. I didn’t say anything about the trade, and that was it.”
What about saying, “That’s what happens when they let you run the show?”
“It was in the general direction [of the Knicks bench],” DiVincenzo said. “Obviously they have me on video saying it. And I’m not there anymore. I play, I’m competitive, I wear my heart on my sleeve and that’s all it was.”
Earlier in the game, DiVincenzo was given a video tribute for his brief Knicks career, which included the single-season record for 3-pointers and arguably the most important shot in the franchise’s past 20 years — the 3-point winner of Game 2 against the Sixers.
DiVincenzo expressed his love for the organization but acknowledged feeling angry initially because, “You never want to get traded. So I was kind of upset. I was kind of hurt.”
He denied rumors of being unhappy with his role before the trade because of the acquisition of Mikal Bridges, potentially pushing DiVincenzo to the bench.
“Take the Villanova s— out of it, I was super excited [to play for the Knicks this season] because we have a very good player coming back to the team. And you get OG [Anunoby] back, now you’re looking at, ‘Wow we’re going to be really good,’ ” DiVincenzo told The Post. “There was never a conversation of my role was going to be diminished. There was never a conversation that my minutes would be diminished. It was the outside assumption and ran with it and it was untrue.”
But DiVincenzo never got that far. He was dealt last month with Julius Randle for Karl-Anthony Towns, ditching the Villanova foursome storyline before it got started.
On Sunday, DiVincenzo returned to MSG and dropped 15 points in 27 minutes with a team-high seven assists.
He also appeared fired up from the opening tip and exchanged heated words with his friend’s father.
“I already knew the situation. I knew he was going to come in and go and be aggressive,” Bridges said. “Things pretty much everywhere when guys get traded and it’s really soon, the transaction happened weeks ago and play them in the preseason. But yeah, he did what he did.”
