One misinformed choice can derail a career. Brandon Jennings—once the NBA’s rule‑bending phenom—knows it better than most. As one of the most electrifying high school players, he bypassed college and played in a foreign league before entering the NBA with much hype around him. In his seventh NBA game, he dropped 55 points against the Golden State Warriors. However, after he rejected a lucrative deal from the Bucks, things went downhill. But there’s much more to it. After all these years, Jennings has revealed the truth. This might not have been his mistake.
By 2012, Jennings was entering his prime. But as a free agent, there was buzz that he would leave the Bucks. In July 2013, Jennings signed a three‑year, $24 million deal with Detroit. He forfeited nearly $16 million, over half the Milwaukee Bucks’ $40 million offer.
On VladTV, Jennings confirmed he’d been offered $40 million. He even admitted that it was a good deal, noting that many had signed contracts worth the same amount. However, he rejected the deal. Logically, it wouldn’t make sense to accept a much lower financial offer. So why did Jennings make that call? The retired NBA player revealed that he never actually rejected it. He claimed that he didn’t even know he had been offered such a great deal. He insists he’d have signed in a heartbeat—if only he’d known.
“It actually came from one of my reps. I guess the Bucks had offered me at the time $40 million, and I didn’t know about it from my agent. I guess because they thought the offer was too low….I don’t know, man. It was just bad at that time, and then that’s when it got real dark,” Jennings explained.
Brandon Jennings, Knicks at Wizards 1/31/17, Date: 31 January 2017, Author: Keith Allison
He briefly returned to the Bucks on a 10‑day contract in March 2018 before being waived in August. While Jennings lost his chance with the Bucks, he has always expressed gratitude for having had the opportunity to play in Milwaukee. However, that was never his first choice. He wanted to go to the New York Knicks. And this time, it was his mistake.
Did Brandon Jennings ruin his own dream?
In the same interview with VladTV, Jennings admitted that he had wanted to go to the Knicks. However, as we know, this is not how things turned out for the player. The 2008 Mr. Basketball USA believes that this happened because of his mistake.
Brandon Jennings believed his pre‑draft workout with New York sealed the deal. Moreover, he detailed that he went all out, being outspoken and calling out Ricky Rubio during the workouts. He believes this outspokenness cost him his Knicks moment under coach Mike D’Antoni.
“Because I was calling out Ricky Rubio, and I was saying why he wasn’t a part of these workouts that we were going in. I thought I was going to get picked by the Knicks because… It was my best workout during that time. And Dan Tony was the coach… But no, Milwaukee picked me at 10,” he said. Though he ultimately averaged a stellar time with Milwaukee—earning NBA All‑Rookie First Team honors in 2010—he never lost his affinity for the Knicks. He ultimately logged 31 games off the bench in New York during the 2016–17 season.
Still, he harbors no bitterness about the outcome. He averaged 17 points, 5.7 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game during his four-year run with the Bucks. And from his upsetting story earlier, it was quite clear that he would have happily received the extension deal with the Bucks. But as fate would have it, Jennings went on to play for the Detroit Pistons. Jennings’ outspoken approach, despite the setback, has served him well on and off the court. It has fueled a globe‑trotting career that spanned stops in Italy, China, and Russia before he hung up his sneakers in 2018.
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