Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki caught a wild stray on Tuesday night from his former teammate and New York Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson following NY’s 124-113 NBA Cup Championship game win against the San Antonio Spurs at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
While tackling the subject of a popular NBA notion about the Eastern Conference being inferior to the Western, Brunson couldn’t keep himself from taking a hilarious shot at the Basketball Hall of Famer.
“It’s tougher people give it credit for, the former Villanova Wildcats star said during the postgame show of NBA on Prime.
Brunson proceeded to bring up some memories that Nowitzki had no desire to revisit.
“I know you were in the West your entire career. You lost to an East team in the finals,” Brunson continued, as he pointed at Nowitzki.
For good measure, Brunson even poked fun at Nowitzki’s age, joking that the Mavs’ 2006 NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat— which he was referencing—happened “40 years ago.”
Here is the video of the hilarious moment between the two former Mavs stars.
Jalen Brunson on the claim that the Eastern Conference is weak, continues to point at Dirk and says: "It's tougher people give it credit for. I know you were in the West your entire career. You lost to an east team in the finals….40 years ago"
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 17, 2025
On Haslem saying that every team… pic.twitter.com/wO99w0PR0R
Oof.
It was all for fun, of course. Brunson and Nowitzki laughed off the exchange along with everyone on the NBA on Prime postgame show, as well as Knicks guard Josh Hart.
Perhaps not many remember, but Brunson caught the tail end of Nowitzki’s legendary NBA career. He was a rookie with the Mavs in the 2018-19 NBA season, which was the German star’s final year in the league.
Brunson was named the 2025 NBA Cup Most Valuable Player after producing 25 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds versus the Spurs.
