After standing in the middle of his good friend and father beefing on national TV, Jalen Brunson placed blame on both parties for poor decisions.
“I just wanted to address that families fight. Things were said. S–t should’ve been handled better on both sides but here we are,” Brunson said on his “Roommates Show” podcast. “Everyone thinks the world’s crumbling. Everyone thinks. … It is what it is at this point. But I just feel like it should’ve been handled way better.”
During Sunday’s preseason game between the Timberwolves and Knicks, Donte DiVincenzo, a groomsman at Brunson’s wedding, began chirping at the Knicks bench, including a couple biting comments directed at Rick Brunson, a Knicks assistant and also Jalen’s father.
It spilled over to a postgame dustup that included DiVincenzo and Rick being separated on the MSG court.
Josh Hart, who was teammates with Jalen Brunson and teammates at Villanova, implied that DiVincenzo was fired up over facing the team that traded him.
DiVincenzo, who has denied being extra motivated to face the Knicks, was swapped with Julius Randle for Karl-Anthony Towns less than two weeks before the game.
“Whenever you get traded – as a seasoned (person who has been traded) – you try not to take things personally because it’s a business. But there’s a human side to it,” Hart, who has been traded three times, said on the podcast. “There’s always like, when you get traded, you feel unwanted, so there’s a personal side to it. And then when you play that team – whether it’s the preseason or whatever – you go at that team. Like, it’s always personal for you.
“For me, the times I got traded, I’m sitting there like, ‘I hope everything burns down.’ I’m sitting there watching and hoping everyone loses. But it’s like that’s the human side, the human nature to the business. … But at the end of the day, it’s always love because you’ve grown relationships and went through adversity with those people.”
During the game, DiVincenzo was picked up by microphones trash-talking Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, “‘Can’t finish, right Thibs?”
DiVincenzo then responded to Rick Brunson, yelling, “That’s what happens when they let you run the show. … Let daddy be in charge.”
“Donte is a grown man. He was standing his ground,” Randle said Tuesday. “And he’s a competitor at heart. That’s just really what it is. I don’t really think much about it, it’s basketball at the end of the day. We’re not going to get into the personal stuff.”
The Knicks face the Timberwolves on Dec. 19 in Minnesota.
