Rumors

Bernie Lee on Jalen Brunson’s paycut with Knicks: The idea that any player making a contractual sacrifice automatically leads to success does not align with what I have seen repeatedly. Once a player sacrifices money, he is handing a tool back to an organization to make decisions he does not control, while still carrying the results of those decisions. There is not an NBA player I have met who, while playing, has the perspective required to be a good general manager. Putting players in the position of making personnel decisions does not help anyone.

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Bernie Lee: Jalen Brunson will be remembered for the rest of his natural life and beyond for taking an incredible risk and leading one of the marquee teams in the NBA to a championship. Over the years, I have had numerous clients with the opportunity to play with the Knicks. I have always said that a person can win anywhere, but winning in New York is entirely different. That has clearly proven to be true. It is an incredible story with a great ending, and every person involved deserves to enjoy it. But the idea that this should start a trend does not add up to me, because the circumstances that allowed it to work were finite and almost impossible to recreate. The family history between the Brunson family and Knicks management has been well documented for good reason, and it clearly played a major role in the trust that defined the relationship from the outset. Still, unless you own the team, everyone works for someone.

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Bernie Lee: Dwyane Wade sacrificed a large sum of money to win championships, which he did repeatedly. He created a legacy with an organization that will stand the test of time, as shown by a statue and a street that carries his name. But the reality is that the money Wade sacrificed did not come back. When his career was over, and he entered the 'what’s next' phase of life, he chose ownership. We all understood the Miami Heat's position when they chose not to sell him a portion of the franchise at a discounted rate, even though you can argue without hesitation that he raised the value of that franchise more than any other person. He had to move on and join the ownership group of another team he never played a second for. None of us asked, 'How does that happen?' Because the answer is simple: that’s business.

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NBA Agent Bernie Lee: Every now and then you meet a person who will argue for an hour over a rule definition in a game of UNO, leave the table in disgust, and then talk about the perceived injustice for a week and how much it bothered them (see Jimmy Butler), and you realize, "Oh wait, there are levels to this." Those levels are where the special in all of this lies. I will give you a real-time example of this: the Boston Celtics. There isn't a person among us who didn't watch them lose earlier in the playoffs than expected last year see their best player go down to a catastrophic injury who didn't expect them to purposely take a step back.

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Bernie Lee: When free agency began, they requested a meeting with a client I had at the time who had underperformed for years and was going to be on a vastly reduced contract, with the thought that if he could prove he was healthy, his value would return. I looked at it as a great opportunity for both sides, but I also had my eyes open and expected in the meeting to be told of a different directive than competing for a championship in 2025–2026. That was until our meeting began at 6:01 p.m. on July 1st. I have done this agent thing for over 20 years, and I have participated in countless free-agent meetings for players of all levels, and I can honestly tell you I have never in my entire career been more impressed with a coach than I was with Joe Mazzulla.

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Bernie Lee: 1. The amount of alignment and respect from Brad Stevens to his coaches was unparalleled; and 2. If anyone asked Joe to do anything other than compete like the world was about to end, they would probably only get the chance to ask him once. Fast-forward 58 games, and not shocking to me, Joe was right. If I am lucky enough to do this another 20-plus years, I highly doubt I will ever see another midstream pivot with this amount of success, and most importantly, a group that was built through adversity versus giving in to it. And that, to me, is the principle that all of this has to be built on. Period. End of sentence.

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NBA agent Bernie Lee on tanking: I will give you a real-time example of this: the Boston Celtics. There isn't a person among us who didn't watch them lose earlier in the playoffs than expected last year see their best player go down to a catastrophic injury who didn't expect them to purposely take a step back. Also working against them, along with these two things, was the implementation of the hard-cap world we now live in in the NBA, which made all the contracts they had recently signed under the old system unsustainable, to the extent that the owners of the team sold the franchise. Leading into the draft and free agency, we began to see them make cost-cutting moves to lower their team salary and seemingly accept their fate: 2025-2026 would be a reset year for the Celtics. Immediately, history would have shown us that "forward-thinking" teams take the opportunity to lower payroll, bottom out, and chase a Top 3 draft pick in what we can all see is a transformational draft. The reality is, we have seen teams around them with a fraction of the accomplishments not only do this for one year but multiple years to a mixed bag of results and still be undeterred.

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NBA agent Bernie Lee on tanking: Another story I want to tell you involves a person I have known forever: Jay Triano. I have never met a person who loves the game and is obsessed with it in various ways as much as Jay. If you ever meet him, ask him to show you his three-basketball shot that immediately ends every game of horse if he gets you to an S. Only a person who has spent a shocking amount of time in a gym with a basketball (or three) is capable of doing that. Jay was coaching a game for the Phoenix Suns where his team was tied with 0.7 seconds left and they had the ball on the sideline. Jay was, remarkably, the only person in the gym who had memorized the basketball rule book so thoroughly that he knew you are allowed to offensive goaltend an inbounds pass according to the rules. So the play Jay drew up was for the inbounder to purposely shoot the ball at the basket and try to make it and for Tyson Chandler to offensive goaltend it at the very last second to win the game - and guess what, it worked.

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Anthony Slater: Here is Jimmy Butler's agent, Bernie Lee, to ESPN on the torn ACL diagnosis for Butler. He called it a "gut punch" but maintained "I've known for over 10 years now that Jimmy is going to win a championship before he is done. My belief in that is unwavering." Full statement

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Simmons’ agent, Bernie Lee, recently dropped him as a client, according to Stein. A source said that decision occurred after the point guard sent signals that he wasn’t interested in whatever came from his agent’s conversations with the Knicks.

New York Post

Marc Stein: As Ben Simmons decides his next career steps, I'm told Bernie Lee has notified @TheNBPA that he has formally removed himself from the union's ledger as Simmons' agent.

x.com

A Heat source said Jimmy Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, promised Miami that Butler would comport himself well last season and would never complain about not getting a contract extension. That proved to be untrue, leaving the Heat without any bargaining position at the trade deadline

Miami Herald

Bernard Lee: man podcast's can kick rocks haha. Let's be clear, the playoffs for him started in February. 1. Took a team that was 11th got them to the 2nd round of the playoffs. 2. that finals team thats just kind of off handedly mentioned here.. had 9 undrafted players on it..

x.com

NBA on ESPN: "Bernie Lee, Jimmy Butler's agent texts me saying, 'Pray for the bear.'" @MarcJSpears says Jonathan Kuminga needs to be ready for Warriors-Rockets Game 3, but has "optimism" for Butler's injury status 👀 pic.x.com/YvZbLL4gQS

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