Earlier this month, there was some buzz of a looming tampering investigation to be laid out against the New York Knicks over the team's successful pursuit of Jalen Brunson in free agency. Now it appears like those whispers are nearing certainty.
According to The Athletic's Fred Katz – who previously reported on the rumors of a tampering witch hunt – there is now an “excellent chance” that an investigation will indeed be conducted against the Knicks.
Via The Athletic:
There is an excellent chance the NBA will open up a tampering investigation into the Knicks’ recruitment of Brunson, whether or not one of the other 29 teams files official tampering charges. Reports of an agreement between the Knicks and Brunson, who officially signed his four-year contract with New York this month, came out before the two sides could legally negotiate.
The talk of the Knicks‘ interest in Brunson was so widely reported in a way rarely seen in NBA free agency. Sure there are reports here and there linking Team X to Player Y, but New York pulled off a handful of moves that individually may not mean much, but at as a whole form a more serious argument that there something might have been afoot before free agency. There were the very aggressive roster moves to clear cap space as well as the personal ties to Brunson, with the most conspicuous being his father's re-hiring onto Tom Thibodeau's staff.
The Knicks signaled they were confident they could sign him when they began dumping salary days before Brunson’s contract with the Mavericks would expire. There are all of the personal relationships too.
It'll be interesting to see how the Knicks-Jalen Brunson tampering investigations unfold. While it isn't confirmed just yet, it's trending towards confirmation the same way the team did to sign their new point guard.
