Luka Dončić had a parting gift for Jalen Brunson before the pair of former Mavericks teammates left the Garden Court on Sunday night.
As the Knicks and Lakers players hugged after the Knicks’ 112-100 win, Dončić raised his middle finger after the star point guard completed another postgame exchange and walked over.
Dončić appeared to be joking with the gesture, while Brunson appeared to smile as he approached.
Brunson and Dončić crossed paths in 2018, when the former was selected in the second round at No. 33 overall and the latter was drafted at No. 3 overall by the Hawks — before being shipped to Dallas in a trade that night.
They then overlapped for four seasons before the Mavericks allowed Brunson to walk in free agency and sign with the Knicks, where he has since become their captain and one of the league’s best players.
That left Dončić as the cornerstone in Dallas for the next two-plus seasons until the Mavericks stunningly shipped him to the Lakers last season — a deal that has since backfired for them and led to general manager Nico Harrison being fired.
“Definitely weird,” Brunson told reporters after the game when asked if he had seen Dončić in a Lakers jersey. “I think we all expected him to be in Dallas for the longest time. But hey, now he’s a Laker and he’s playing great and still doing the things he does.”
Brunson and Dončić both played integral roles in the Mavericks’ run to the 2022 Western Conference Finals, where they were eliminated by the Warriors in five games before Brunson’s crucial decision in free agency.
When they overlapped at the Garden on Sunday, Dončić, who is averaging 33.7 points per game and could win the MVP award if he kept up that pace of production, scored 30 points for Los Angeles, while Brunson struggled, going 4-for-15 from the field. However, he managed to dish out 13 assists, allowing the Knicks’ role players to flourish.
The win extended the Knicks’ winning streak to six games, and the Lakers have lost two of their last three games entering Tuesday’s game against the tanking Nets.
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