NEW YORK — Mark Cuban never envisioned Jalen Brunson as captain material, and it turns out, neither did Brunson himself — until the Knicks gave him the title this summer.

During an appearance on the “Roommates Show” podcast with Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, Cuban, the former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reflected on Brunson’s journey from being the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft to his current role as the face of the franchise at Madison Square Garden.

While Cuban was full of praise for his former point guard, he admitted that Brunson never really had the chance to showcase captain qualities in Dallas, largely due to the presence of superstar Luka Doncic.

“Yeah, [we] definitely miss him. Put aside what’s on the court: JB’s just a good dude. He was great in the locker room, everybody loved him, he was fun to hang out with, he’s great. So yeah, miss him for sure,” Cuban said on the podcast. “Did I see him as captain material? I don’t know, I knew he wanted his own team, but he really didn’t get that chance to be that guy other than a couple playoff games. So I’d be lying if I said yeah, for sure I saw him as captain material.”

Cuban then turned to Brunson, asking if his assessment was fair.

“It’s fair. It’s fair,” Brunson replied. “Captain, in the NBA, I never thought that was something I had to strive for. Obviously, I wanted to be a leader, but I never thought I’d be named captain of a franchise.”

Cuban continued to laud Brunson’s abilities as a floor general. After all, leadership was a key factor in New York’s decision to name him the 36th captain in franchise history, just two seasons into his Knicks career after he left Dallas in 2022.

“I don’t want to say Jalen didn’t have leadership skills — you’re seeing them now — but he definitely did,” Cuban said. “No team builds without stress and drama throughout the entire season, and JB was always a cool head, wise beyond his years, and you could tell that he was the leader at Villanova and he tried to translate that [to the professional game]. He was always a calming influence, which was great.”

Brunson then recalled his junior year at Villanova, claiming he was the true leader of the team despite Hart being named captain as a senior in 2017.

“No, you weren’t [our leader],” Hart interjected with a laugh. “You were like the little annoying fat-head kid that coach liked, and we were like, ‘We don’t really like dude, but he’s good, so we’ll hang out with him.’

“You know when you were a kid, and you’re the older brother, and you ask your mom to go somewhere, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, but you’ve gotta bring your little brother with you?’ That was us at Nova with JB. It was like, ‘Ugh, we’ve gotta bring JB.’ ”

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