Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist
For many years, New York has longed for a savior. A knight in blue and orange armor who could lead the Knicks back to the stardom they possessed during the Patrick Ewing days. At first they thought it was Latrell Sprewell, and we all saw how that ended. Then they thought it was Melo, and that ended in even more disappointment. Then they thought it was…Kevin Knox? Ok we will forget about that phase for a second.
The point is that New York might finally have found the savior it has so desired for so many years in the form of 6 ‘1 guard Jalen “1A” Brunson.
Brunson was selected 33rd overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 draft (alongside fellow superstar Luka Doncic). Brunson had a stellar career at the Villanova University winning the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year trophy and leading his Wildcats to a championship in what some claim to be the greatest college basketball team of all time.
However, despite all of Brunson’s individual and team success, he was still heavily overlooked heading into the draft by a narrative that would haunt him for the rest of his career –size. Coming in at only 6 ‘1 (or 6’ 2) at 190 pounds, scouts argued that Brunson, despite all his talent, would never have the physical frame necessary to be the best player on a championship team.
Years later Becky Hammon repeated this same narrative in an infamous TV segment claiming, “If your best player is small, you’re not winning. Jalen Brunson is too small to be a 1A player.”
Three seasons into his NBA career, all the narratives around Brunson had proven to be true. He only averaged 9, then 8, then 12 points a game on bad efficiency. It looked like the size and physicality adjustment was just too much for him and he was nothing but a traffic cone on defense.
However, it was in his fourth season in the NBA that Brunson truly started to come into his own. His scoring bumped up to 16 points a game and played a critical role for the Mavericks when Luka Doncic got hurt in the middle of their playoff push. With Brunson’s help, the Mavericks made a surprising run to the western conference finals before losing to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors.
With that being said, increased success demands an increased payout and Brunson wanted Mavs owner Mark Cuban to show him the money!!!
Brunson had been up for a contract extension during his best stretch of the season and was open to taking less money from the Mavs. Unfortunately for the Mavs, in a stupid move by the front office, they decided to hold off on paying Brunson until the end of the season. Once they came back to him with the original offer, Brunson laughed in their face and walked out the door to one of the biggest markets in the world, you guessed it, New York City.
Now, as a genius of a move this was by the Knicks front office at the time, the fans did not see it that way. They thought that James Dolan had overpaid for an undersized traffic cone who could never be the best player on a championship team. Fortunately for Knicks fans, it took all but a few weeks for Brunson to prove all the doubters wrong.
He lit the league on FIRE averaging 24 and 6 while clearly surpassing Julius Randle as the undisputed best player on the Knicks. All of a sudden what looked to be a tremendous overpay turned into one of the best deals in the league in a matter of games.
New York dealt with injuries towards the end of the season but they still managed to end up as the 5th seed and landed themselves a first round matchup with the 4th seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. In a display of excellence, Brunson significantly outplayed opposing guard Donovan Mitchell and guided the Knicks to their first playoff series win in years.
Unfortunately, Randle disappeared during the second round against the Heat and Brunson’s heroics alone were not enough to beat the eventual eastern conference champions.
Coming into 2023-2024, Brunson was back with a vengeance and a motivation to once again prove all the remaining doubters wrong. Not only did he silence those doubters, he made each and every single one of them look like idiots. Brunson improved his production even more to a whopping 28 points per game and was named to his first ever All Star team.
Now, with Julius Randle done for the season and the Knicks sitting comfortably in the third seed, New York is relying on one man to save them all. You already know who it is, the King of New York himself: Jalen Brunson.
Photo Credit: Erik Drost CC BY 2.0