For the first ten years of my life, I was embarrassed to be a Knick fan. Not only were they terrible, they were the joke of the NBA. They even got made fun of in a Pixar movie. Because of this, I focused on Michigan basketball, who I love, but there was not a community like there could be with the Knicks. From the failed Carmelo Anthony experiment to the failed Kristaps Porzingis experiment, to the failed Kevin Knox experiment, there was not much success had in building a competent team.
That all changed with one man. In 2022, former national champion and Naismith Player of the Year winner Jalen Brunson had a breakout playoff run, averaging 18 points per game on the way to an NBA finals appearance. After this, rumors of him coming to the Knicks started to heat up.
However, he was believed to be too small to lead an NBA team. At 6 foot 1, he is on the smaller side for guards. Despite this, the Knicks pursued him heavily, devoting their offseason to making him the next great Knick guard. Eventually, they paid him twenty seven million dollars to play here. Despite his star turn, that was viewed as an extreme overpay. Guards don’t win games, especially undersized ones.
It’s safe to say that he was not overpaid. The second Brunson arrived at “The Garden”, there was an immediate shift. He led the Knicks to their first playoff victory in over ten years, and it only went up from there. This year, they made their second straight conference finals, and Brunson averaged over twenty seven points and six assists. However, his scoring is not the biggest thing he brings. Voted captain after his second year, he is the heart and soul of the team. A selfless leader, recently saying he wasn’t a star, his only goal is to win. He recruited two of his college teammates and best friends to New York to further enhance the culture.
However, the scoring is also pretty unbelievable. Last night, in a must-win game that into the middle of the fourth quarter looked like a sure loss, he took over and simply dominated. He attacked James Harden and scored fifteen of his thirty eight points in that quarter. After singlehandedly willing the Knicks to tie the game, he and his teammates, most notably Landry Shamet, took over to quickly end the game in overtime.
On a more solo level, he became the second fastest guard to 2,000 playoff points, second to only Stephen Curry, and faster than legends like Chris Paul, Jerry West, and even Kobe Bryant. What he is doing is something that New York Basketball simply hasn’t seen in over thirty years.
As he continues to lead the Knicks against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavs can only hope to find a way to contain him, because last night, they definitely didn’t have one. Thank you Jalen Brunson, and LGK.
