For the first time in 27 years, the New York Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals, and the man who carried them there is busy answering the question that has trailed him his entire career: can a 'small' lead guard be the best player on a championship team?
Jalen Brunson's road to this moment began with a gamble. He left the Dallas Mavericks in 2022 to sign a four-year, $104 million deal with New York — the largest the franchise had ever offered an incoming player — then took roughly $37 million less over the first years of a 2024 extension, savings that helped the Knicks add Mikal Bridges. Four straight playoff appearances later, after exits in the East semi-finals and last year's conference finals, he has New York four wins from its first title since 1973. He is also just the fifth player listed at 6-foot-2 or shorter in the last 40 years to lead his team in scoring entering the Finals, joining Stephen Curry, Tony Parker, Allen Iverson and Isiah Thomas.
The doubts were spelled out two years ago on NBA Today by Becky Hammond, the three-time WNBA champion head coach, in comments now making the rounds again. "At the end of the day, they don't have a dude. You got to have a 1A dude, and they're missing that," Hammond said. "If we're just getting down to brass tacks, if your best player is small, you're not winning." Told her words might come back to haunt her, she did not blink: "I said what I said. He proves me wrong. He proves me wrong."
NBA Today's panel acknowledged the roster has changed since — Karl-Anthony Towns is on some nights a genuine 1A alongside Brunson — but made the case that Brunson has earned the billing outright. He ranks among the league leaders in drives, isolations and on-ball screens, and, tellingly, has become a threat without the ball: his 29 two-point jumpers rank third in the postseason, a product of the back screens and slips he now folds into New York's offence.
Brunson himself has kept the tone measured. "As I continue to grow older, as I continue to be who I am, I'm not really worried about what people will say," he said. "This means a lot to me. We're still writing a story."
With a week to rest, attention turned to whom New York should want out of the West. Asked whether he would rather face Oklahoma City or San Antonio, one analyst initially leaned Spurs, then reconsidered. "How Victor is struggling right now with Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet, he is going to struggle even more with Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns," he said, citing New York's oversized frontcourt, before adding: "But with the way OKC is, and how they're banged up, I don't think it matters."
That confidence ran through the studio, with one panelist forecasting the trophy would be "in New York City this summer" and another doubling down on a 'Knicks in six' prediction. The reasoning was consistent: New York is rested, owns the league's best win differential through the playoffs, and will meet a Western champion worn down by a six- or seven-game war. "Victor Wembanyama is a player of destiny," one analyst offered, "but it feels like the New York Knicks are a team of destiny." For Brunson — already christened the 'Brunson Burner' and 'Captain Clutch,' and whispered about as a future greatest-Knick-of-all-time should he finish the job — vindication is now just four wins away.
