This guy went to MSG to say Jalen Brunson's name 100,000 times

Jake Epstein spent his Sunday sitting in a folding chair outside of Madison Square Garden, wearing a tuxedo and a Knicks baseball cap, saying the words, “Jalen Brunson’’ over and over, with the goal of repeating the Knicks captain’s name 100,000 times.

“I was thinking about this idea yesterday, and I realized, on my Sunday, on my off day, I'd be at home talking about the Knicks anyway,’’ said Epstein, who is 22 and from Montauk. “I got inspiration from Jesse Itzler, who wrote the ‘Go New York, Go New York Go’ song when he was 22 years old. And Mr. Beast, who did a lot of videos like this.’’

Epstein graduated from Hofstra last year and now works in the city and lives on the Upper West Side. He said he could have taken a video of himself in his apartment but thought it would be better to do it outside the Garden. At 1 p.m., he’d said Brunson’s name almost 21,000 times, a fifth of the way to his goal.

Epstein wasn’t born when the Knicks last played in the Finals in 1999, but he sees the current Knicks' success as a sweet end to a long comeback story.

“It really feels kind of almost, like the movie ‘Rocky,’ where they're down, but it's all about how they get back up,’’ he said. “And they've had some really down years. They've won 17 games in multiple seasons. They’ve had eight or nine coaches since the last time they made the Finals. They've just been a disappointment. People used to wear paper bags with holes cut out [for their eyes].

“I think it shows that you keep bearing with things, you trust the process, you can win, and great things can happen,’’ he said. “Me personally, I don't have a lot of viewers right now, but that's not what the point is. The point is like you’ve got to build towards something. I feel like right now I'm the 17-win Knicks, and a few years from now I'll be winning the championship.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.