It wasn’t personal against the Knicks, according to Mark Cuban, just the business of creating his NBA finalist. By sitting their top players at the conclusion of last season, the Mavericks enhanced their chances of both maintaining their 2023 first-rounder and also keeping it away from the Knicks — who would’ve received the selection as the final Kristaps Porzingis payment if it landed below the top 10.

Asked if it felt like unexpected payback after the Knicks were caught interfering with Jalen Brunson, Cuban told The Post, “I’m not a revenge guy.”

“We never tanked anything,” the Mavericks owner stated. “We just decided to play our younger players the last couple of games. But it’s [general manager] Nico Harrison’s and mine’s and [coach] Jason Kidd’s duty to make the tough decisions.

Nobody who decides to rebuild properly enjoys it. When you play your young players, it’s not always fun. So we just felt it was time to go young.”

The NBA clearly didn’t consider it as run-of-the-mill rebuilding, however, and fined the franchise $750,000.

The problem? The Mavericks still had a possibility for the play-in tournament but rested Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, among others, for the final two games.

They retained their lottery pick at No. 10 overall and used it to acquire Duke center Dereck Lively II, who evolved into a major element of Dallas’ journey to the NBA Finals.

“We made the decision 10 other teams made, right?” Cuban said. “We just made it a little bit later. Obviously everything turned out well.”

Commissioner Adam Silver, who designed the play-in tournament so that clubs like the 2023 Mavericks wouldn’t tank away their late-season games, tried to downplay the connection between Lively and Dallas’ run to the NBA Finals.

“We sanctioned them. We did what we thought was proper at the time,” Silver said. “I would only say that the success they saw this season, that they’re now seeing in the playoffs and here they are at the finals, I don’t attribute it to one draft pick, as important as that draft pick has been to their team.”

“I don’t care. People give me s— all the time,” he said. “You guys [the media] give me s— all the time. Does it really matter? It’s like going on Twitter and expecting everybody to be kind to you. You know the game, you’ve been doing this forever. You’ve seen the ups and downs. A broken hand alters everything. I just try to enjoy the moment.”

Although the tale is far from over, the Knicks look like the losers of the Mavericks’ decision. Instead of their pick landing in the mid-teens last year, it will convey this month at No. 24. The Knicks also have the No. 25 pick, which is their own.

About a year ago after the end of a poor Mavericks’ season, Cuban publicly blamed Brunson’s father, Rick, for the point guard departing Dallas in free agency for New York — “Where it went south was when Rick took over [the negotiations],” Cuban told reporters last April.

Rick Brunson has a long-standing relationship with both Knicks president Leon Rose and Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.

The Knicks were fined a second-round pick for “engaging in free agency discussions involving Jalen Brunson prior to the date when such discussions were permitted.”

“I got no problem with [Rick]. When we played you guys, I spotted him and said, ‘Hi.’ Shook his hand. What’s done is done,” Cuban said. “You can’t hold grudges in this league. There’s simply like no point. The person you despise is going to be your best player tomorrow.”