Is Jalen Brunson the greatest Knicks player ever? Let the debate begin.
It wasn’t long after Jalen Brunson had put the chef’s kiss on a season that will forever etch him in the hearts of Knicks fans and really, in the heart of an entire city, that he sat on a set of a postgame show next to his father and was asked to consider his place in franchise history.
The question, one that might have seemed impossible to ask when Brunson first signed in New York, is this: Is Jalen Brunson now the greatest Knick of all time?
He’d never say anything that reeked of ego. The closest he came was when he walked across the stage late Saturday night carrying the Larry O’Brien trophy in one arm and the Finals MVP award in the other and said, “Do I be myself or do I talk my [expletive]?” And it was clear where the humility came from as Rick Brunson interrupted the "Inside the NBA" interview to point out, “I'm gonna stop the argument too, no disrespect, I love my son, Patrick Ewing is the greatest Knick that I've ever witnessed.”
New York native and long-time NBA player and analyst, Kenny Smith replied, "Well, I'm gonna say it, it's gonna be debatable now.”
It is and it’s not nearly as simplistic as Rick Brunson said. There is a conversation to be had, maybe not settled yet, but not just a prisoner of the moment.
Newsday's Knicks commemorative section poster of NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson. Credit: Newsday Illustration/Isaac Lopez
Who is the greatest? Is it, as Rick Brunson claimed, Patrick Ewing, an 11-time all-star? Is it Willis Reed, whose honors included two championship rings and Finals MVP awards, as well as a full-season MVP award? Is it Walt Frazier, who joined Reed on both those championship teams and was with Reed and Ewing as part of the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players team, as well as earning seven all-star berths and all-defensive team honors?
Brunson has a case and the final decision is yet to be determined. In four seasons in New York, he has led the team not just to this championship and the trio of MVP awards he garnered this season, but eight playoff series wins for a franchise that had one in 20 years before his arrival.
Jalen Brunson holds the MVP trophy Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
There have been other captains since Reed, but no one seemed to honor the nickname, “Cap,” quite like Brunson in the intervening years. His ethos of “The magic is in the work” took over the franchise, an organization that had been littered with dysfunction for decades. And if there was one defining characteristic as the Knicks staged come-from-behind wins in all four of their NBA Finals wins this time, it was maturity, the ability to stay composed, to fight to the final buzzer and never panic.
And while those other Knicks championship squads boasted entire starting lineups of Hall of Famers, Brunson has led a group that only has one other player who’s ever made an All-Star team. Has there ever been a doubt who would have the ball in their hands for the Knicks when it matters most?
Rick Brunson may have attempted to defuse the talk, understandable since work has always been the defining characteristic instilled by Rick and Sandra Brunson, the parents who guided Jalen’s early journey. While he was the son of an NBA player and grew up in NBA locker rooms and gyms, Jalen’s lessons came from a player who had to fight for a spot on the fringes of an NBA roster every season. Now he is a star who attacks the game with the same fervor — not fear, but determination.
Brunson will have more time, the entire starting lineup under contract for next season and no major changes likely to come anytime soon. He’s got time for another ring, a chance to get the acclaim he’s gained under the spotlight of the Finals to get the votes in the regular-season awards (he was somehow fifth in MVP voting two years ago, but didn’t get a first-team All-NBA slot).
He’ll be forever remembered already for what he’s done, for leading the franchise back to the place where Reed and Frazier put them. He will have his number in the rafters someday, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll be the sort of face of the franchise that Clyde has become. We joked with him a few years ago that his most likely post-career basketball job would be as an assistant coach on a coaching staff headed by his Villanova pal, Ryan Arcidiacono.
He’s eternal at Madison Square Garden. And he’s got time to do more. One thing is certain: as he was making the rounds Monday — "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," "The View" and leading into "The Tonight Show" with a parade to follow Thursday — when the celebrations finally settle down, he would get back to the same place he’d been. The magic is in the work.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
