Jalen Brunson has already authored one of the great individual playoff runs in recent memory, dragging the New York Knicks to their first NBA Finals since 1999. On ESPN's Get Up, the question on the eve of Game 1 was not whether he belongs, but how much a title would ultimately mean for his place in history.
The panel's answer was emphatic. A championship, one analyst argued, would not only end a generational drought but settle Brunson's Hall of Fame case for good. "This is a legacy moment for Jalen Brunson on many levels," he said. "To end that kind of a drought -- and to do it with a team that hasn't won in 53 years -- would put him on a level where he will be exalted for the rest of his life. More importantly, I think it locks in the Hall of Fame for him. He's a two-time NCAA champion. He was a player of the year in college. Now you bring it to this point where you get an NBA championship as well -- he's in the Hall. It's a lock."
The show also reframed the stakes around the city itself, noting that New York has not celebrated a major sports championship since the Giants won the Super Bowl following the 2011 season. Ending that wait, with the Knicks specifically, would carry weight far beyond Brunson's individual résumé.
But Get Up was clear-eyed about the obstacle in his way. Stopping San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, the panel agreed, is the defining problem of the series. "No matter what his emotion is, you're going to have to deal with Victor Wembanyama," one analyst said. "That is the number one issue for the Knicks to deal with. You're not defeating him -- you're trying to slow him down."
The conversation turned to the individual matchup that may swing the series: rookie guard Stephon Castle, fresh off chasing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for seven games, now inheriting Brunson. The sympathy was real. "He goes from the frying pan right into the fire when it comes to having to guard a guy like Brunson," one panelist said. "If he doesn't have a migraine by the end of all this, it'd really be remarkable. Both are guards, both are scorers, but they play very differently."
Jay Williams offered a tactical key for New York that hinges on a familiar name: Josh Hart. "Josh Hart is going to be a free screener," Williams said. "Look for him to be involved in pick-and-rolls with Brunson so he can turn that corner. It's going to force Victor Wembanyama to play up, and the more you force him to play up, that takes him away from being a pillar in the middle of the lane. Keeping Wembanyama out of the paint is going to be one of the most important things of this series -- it opens up the continuity so the Knicks can actually run their sets and get clean looks."
There was a counter, too. San Antonio's likely response, another analyst suggested, is to dare Hart to beat them from outside. "Wembanyama will start on Hart, sit in the corner of the lane, and step in to deny Brunson getting downhill," he said, noting Hart is shooting only around 30 percent from three this series. "Hart's had one big three-point shooting game in each series to make them pay. He's going to have to have at least one or two in the Finals."
The panel opened the program with a prediction -- Knicks in six -- built on the team's staggering recent form. New York's scoring margin across an 11-game playoff stretch, one analyst noted, is unmatched in 80 years of league history. "You can't go in any hotter than they are," he said. Whether that is enough to solve Wembanyama, and to immortalize Brunson, is the question the next two weeks will answer.
