The New York big man talks about Brunson’s rise to a two-time All-Star and the Knicks’ cornerstone on one of the league’s best-value contracts.
Jalen Brunson is the epitome of “perfecting your craft.” If it wasn’t apparent by the countless hours of practice and games put in over the years that led him to becoming the New York Knicks starting point guard, then it became so after viral videos surfaced of Brunson as a kid, running through drills with his father and assistant coach with the Knicks, Rick.
All that hard work paid off as early as high school, as evidenced by Brunson’s selection to the McDonald’s All-American Game and being named Mr. Basketball in the state of Illinois his senior season. He carried that momentum to Villanova, where he became a two-time national champion, the Naismith College Player of the Year in 2018, and had his No. 1 jersey retired in the rafters of Finneran Pavilion.
His play in college got him drafted 33rd overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 NBA Draft, but it wasn’t until Brunson arrived in the Big Apple that his game really took off. Brunson’s averages went up across the board in Year 1 with the Knicks after signing a four-year, $104 million deal, setting the stage for back-to-back All-Star appearances in 2024 and 2025.
Now-teammate Karl-Anthony Towns had admired Brunson’s game from afar when he was still in Minnesota, but after the big man got traded to New York last year, he got to see firsthand how his point guard operates.
“I think Jalen, just his public perception, is stoic. His game is stoic, has a lot of ease to it, and very calming,” Towns said in the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman. “He kind of seems like a Marvel superhero that just never feels the moment’s too big for him. I think that’s really cool about him.”
Not only has Brunson become one of the elite shot-makers in the NBA, but he also holds one of the most team-friendly contracts in the entire league after he agreed to an extension that pays him approximately $39 million annually, good enough for roughly 40th in the entire NBA. Getting the production the Knicks get out of the two-time All-Star at the price they are paying is something every GM covets.
Be sure to catch the full conversation between Towns and Kleiman at Boardroom’s YouTube channel here, as well as Yahoo Sports’ podcast pages on Apple and Spotify.
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