Kris Jenkins Calls Out Mavericks, Mark Cuban For Knicks' Jalen Brunson Situation

Much like his efforts at the end of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship, Kris Jenkins is trying to end it.

The former Villanova University star has chimed in on Mark Cuban's attempts to re-open the relative controversy behind Jenkins' collegiate teammate Jalen Brunson signing with the New York Knicks. As his team's season slipped into hardwood oblivion, the Dallas Mavericks owner tried to blame metropolitan tampering and Brunson's "parents" (father/assistant coach and godfather/president Leon Rose) for the failure to offer Brunson a new contract to stay in the Lone Star State.

Jenkins, however, isn't buying it.

"Man, the lies," Jenkins declared on Twitter, quoting Cuban's claim of parental interference. "You refused to offer him the contract he asked you ….. multiple times, this is sick behavior Mark."

The paths of Brunson and Jenkins crossed for two seasons at Villanova. Jenkins (who also played four seasons with new Knick Josh Hart) is best known for sinking the game-winning triple as time expired in the aforementioned 2016 title game against North Carolina.

Brunson later help guide the Wildcats to another national title two years later while Jenkins returned to the program as a student-athlete development supervisor after a brief semi-pro career domestically (including Miami's NBA G League affiliate in Sioux Falls) and abroad.

The NBA appears to consider the Brunson affair closed, charging the Knicks with a lost second-round pick in the 2025 draft. Cuban, however, conjured Brunson's name as time ran out on the Mavericks' season, a disappointing follow-up to their surprise appearance in last season's Western Conference Finals. While Brunson has flourished for the Knicks (47-35) and thrust them into the fifth seed in the upcoming Eastern Conference playoffs, Dallas (38-44) missed the Western postseason entirely.

Cuban's comments were part of a bizarre final week of Mavericks basketball, one where he apparently couldn't get the Knicks out of his head: in an apparent effort to prevent their first-round pick at the coming draft from heading east, Cuban mandated a shutdown of several major names despite still lingering in the Western Play-In picture. The NBA is reportedly looking into the gambit.

The Mavericks aren't the only target of Jenkins' wrath brought about by a fellow Wildcat scorned as the playoffs loom: he referred to the Philadelphia 76ers, Villanova's part-time roommates at Wells Fargo Center, as "bozos" for trading current Brooklyn Nets star Mikal Bridges on draft night in 2018. He also had further praise for Brunson, calling him "ONE OF THE GREATEST COLLEGE PLAYERS EVER" shortly after the career-best 48-point performance in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this month.

Jenkins will no doubt have an eye on the opening to the NBA playoffs on Saturday: Brunson and the Knicks will face the same Cavaliers on Saturday evening (6 p.m. ET, ESPN) while Bridges and the Nets open the slate in Philadelphia that afternoon (1 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Knicks? Click Here.

Follow AllKnicks.com on Twitter.