It was under a week ago that Donte DiVincenzo and Rick Brunson got into a heated exchange after a preseason game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New York Knicks. So, Jalen Brunson felt that situation had to be addressed on the latest episode of the Roommates Show, and he and Josh Hart went about doing just that.
“So, Donte was talking that s***,” Hart said. “You want to talk about it, we can talk about it.”
While Hart didn’t seem too interested in talking about the matter at hand at first, Brunson stated that he wished the whole situation had been handled better.
“I just wanted to address that families fight,” Brunson said. “Things were said. I mean, s*** should’ve been handled better on both sides but here we are. Everyone thinks the world’s crumbling… It is what it is at this point. But I just feel like it should’ve been handled way better.”
Hart, who has been traded thrice in his career, then shared what it’s like to play against a former team, which is what DiVincenzo was doing that night.
“As a seasoned tradee, you try not to take things personally because things are the business,” Hart said. “But there’s a human side to it… When you get traded, sometimes you feel unwanted, so you always have a personal side to it. And then whenever you play that team – whether it’s the preseason or whatever – you go at that team. It’s always personal for you.
Hart admitted he had hoped that everything burned down for teams that had traded him.
“That’s the human side, the human nature to the business,” Hart stated. “… But you don’t realize we are actual people. We have emotions, we have feelings, so it’s always a little bit personal. But at the end of the day, it’s always love because you’ve grown relationships and you went through adversity with those people.”
Brunson felt the fact that the game took place so soon after DiVincenzo and Julius Randle had been traded to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns played a part in that incident. I believe it did too, as all those emotions were still so fresh. Hart then added that the situation will be resolved internally.
We received an update on that front from Knicks insider Ian Begley on Thursday. Begley reported that DiVincenzo and the elder Brunson had indeed put the incident behind them.
“Talked to several people about Rick Brunson & Donte DiVincenzo exchanging words the other night & one thing I’ve heard consistently is that they’ve had a close relationship for a while and it’s water under the bridge at this point, for both Brunson and DiVincenzo.”
I never believed that the incident was going to cause any kind of serious rift, especially with how close DiVincenzo is to the younger Brunson. That was just an emotional night and things got a bit out of hand. The Knicks and the Timberwolves will be facing off on Dec. 19, 2024, and I don’t expect to see a repeat of what happened in that preseason clash, which New York won 115-110.
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