A former Mavericks executive is drawing renewed heat over his 2020 stance on Jalen Brunson, accused of influencing why Dallas didn’t re-sign him. Haralabos Voulgaris also described an awkward Knicks-Lakers game run-in with Rick Brunson, who he says confronted
For years, Jalen Brunson’s name has been tied to Dallas’s biggest what-if: how a move that didn’t happen became the player the Knicks now build around.
Haralabos Voulgaris knows the story has followed him. The former Mavericks executive, who worked with the team until May 2021, said he’s been blamed for the path that ended with Brunson in New York—and he added a detail that makes the pressure feel personal.
Voulgaris. previously the Mavericks’ director of quantitative research and development. wrote in a thread on X on Thursday that during the 2020 NBA Draft he believed Tyrese Haliburton—the Pacers star—was the best player in the class. He said he was trying to trade for him, and that the Mavericks would have considered moving Brunson.
In Voulgaris’s telling, Brunson wasn’t just a piece in Dallas’s future—he was an asset with league-wide value, and Voulgaris says he supported moving him if the Mavericks could have acquired Haliburton.
He also said he and many others never expected Brunson to blossom into the player he became in 2026, which is why he considered trading him.
Voulgaris left the Mavericks after the 2021 season, meaning he wasn’t part of the front office’s decision to let Brunson walk in free agency to the Knicks. Still, he said he continues to get blamed for the call.
That blame comes with an awkward memory he described from a Knicks-Lakers game a few years ago. when he attended in person. Voulgaris said Rick Brunson—the Knicks assistant coach and Jalen Brunson’s father—gave him the “stink eye” for most of the contest. while Rick gestured at him awkwardly throughout the game.
After the game, Voulgaris said Rick Brunson approached him and began talking to him in what the former executive described as an overly aggressive tone.
“He told me the reason he had a problem with me was that he was looking out for his kid, and that he was upset because he thought I had tried to cost his son some money,” Voulgaris added.
Voulgaris said the exchange didn’t end in a permanent fracture. He described ending the game on good terms, saying he and Rick Brunson hugged and shook hands.
The questions Voulgaris faces now are sharper because Brunson has turned into the very kind of outcome some Dallas decision-makers once couldn’t see. Since leaving Mavericks in 2022, Jalen Brunson has evolved into an All-NBA point guard. He has spearheaded the Knicks’ turnaround from an 11th seed four years ago to an NBA Finals contender.
His production has followed the same upward line: Jalen Brunson has averaged over 24 points per game in each year as a Knick and has guided New York to the playoffs for four straight years.
And the timing keeps cutting through the noise. After scoring 30 points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night against the Spurs, he is set to look for more impact Friday night at 8:30 p.m. as the Knicks aim to extend their advantage.
Haralabos Voulgaris Dallas Mavericks Jalen Brunson Rick Brunson Tyrese Haliburton 2020 NBA Draft Knicks-Lakers game NBA Finals Spurs