Knicks Notes: Brunsons, Hart, Bridges, Championship

Captain Jalen Brunson was the Knicks‘ hero once again in Saturday’s championship-clinching Game 5 victory, scoring 45 of New York’s 94 points en route to being named the unanimous Finals MVP. Brunson said the pressure of intense playoff moments is nothing compared to what his father, assistant coach Rick Brunson, faced during his journeyman NBA career, as Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic details.

“No pressure. No pressure whatsoever,” Jalen Brunson said. “My dad being on eight or nine unguaranteed contracts throughout his career and not knowing when you’re going to get cut, when a team is going to move on from you, while your family is on the East Coast and you are wherever you are in the country. That’s pressure.

“Working out three times a day in the summertime and watching him push himself just to get a training camp deal, that’s pressure. I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am and I definitely think I worked pretty hard. So when the opportunity presented itself like it did today, I just trusted my work. … I’m just never afraid to fail.”

Rick Brunson called it “surreal” watching his son lead the Knicks to their first title in 53 years, according to Thompson.

“I can’t imagine,” Rick said, shaking his head. “I never thought he’d get to this level. I’d be lying to you if I said I thought he would be this good. I just wanted someone to come to New York, run a team, and hopefully have a chance to win a championship. And for him to be the guy to help me help the team, this is surreal.”

Here’s more on the new NBA champions:

• Brunson’s decision to sign an extension in the 2024 offseason rather than waiting for a more lucrative contract in 2025 free agency played a key role in helping the front office built out the roster around him, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. “He understands what winning is about,” head coach Mike Brown said. “He took a pay cut that I wouldn’t take. Every time they would throw that number in front of me, I would say no, and I feel like I’m a great guy. He set the bar. That set the standard.”
• CJ Moore of The Athletic recently spoke to several people associated with Villanova about Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, the trio of Knicks who played college ball together with the Wildcats. “When things are going against them, they don’t show too much body language,” said Matt Kennedy, a former Villanova walk-on, several days before New York’s historic Game 4 comeback. “The big thing at Villanova was attitude, and don’t show your emotion. I think that’s what’s allowed them to come back in a lot of games, that mindset and attitude; you can’t really break them. They’re just gonna keep coming and coming and coming at you.”
• Hart said after Game 5 that his bond with Brunson and Bridges will last a lifetime, per Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. “Those are my brothers for life,” Hart said. “We have a bond that’ll never be broken. We won a championship together in college, but this one obviously takes the cake. We’ve been built for this moment. We’ve all been forged in the fire … Coach [Jay] Wright helped us be cut from a different cloth. No matter the moment, it’s never too big for us.”
• ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill takes a look at the Knicks’ path to the championship, noting that the team’s dominant playoff run was unexpected even though New York was one of the preseason favorite in the Eastern Conference. Tim Bontemps of ESPN says OG Anunoby‘s game-winning tip-in in Game 4 was the team’s defining moment while taking a deeper dive at the Knicks’ lengthy title drought.
• Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News and Fred Katz of The Athletic take behind-the-scenes looks at the Knicks’ celebration in San Antonio.