Jalen Brunson's unselfish play contagious in Knicks' romp
Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks brings the ball upcourt against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
With the lights dimmed at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, the pregame introductions began for this season’s Knicks squad — the players on two-way contracts, the reserves, and finally the starting lineup. And the first to be announced and make his way through the line of kids setting a tunnel for them was Jalen Brunson.
From all around the Garden, lights flickered and the applause was deafening, a welcome that seemed to fit the occasion for the prize of the Knicks’ offseason.
“I think down the line when my career starts winding down, I can look back on moments like this and think about how special they were,” Brunson said after the Knicks’ 130-106 victory over the Detroit Pistons. “But I think right now, it’s best to stay locked in, best to stay focused. It was a great feeling, but all that goes out the window if we don’t try to win games.”
And he put that on display. There wasn’t an offensive explosion like the 41-point playoff performance last season with Dallas. Instead, Brunson was barreling into the crowd for a steal and save, taking charges, finding teammates and basically coaxing the Knicks into a team in his image. The result was a top-to-bottom dominant performance as they led by as many as 29 points.
It was an opportunity decades in the making. When Brunson was a toddler, his father, Rick, played for the Knicks. A hard-nosed guard who fit the mold of then-assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, Rick Brunson eventually followed him on three stops as an assistant coach. His young son’s first basketball exposure came on the Garden court.
Thibodeau saw the younger Brunson grow up from those early days through his high school-starring moments in Chicago. He wasn’t surprised that Brunson wasn’t treating this as a heroic journey home.
“Yeah, that’s who he is,” Thibodeau said. “In this league, you can’t get lost in the hoopla. You can be distracted so many different ways, and that’s what I love about him. He’s just got a routine and a strategy for everything . . . It lends itself to leading our team that way.”
Brunson, who had 17 points and six assists Friday night, has proved from college to the NBA to be a winner.
In Wednesday’s season opener in Memphis, he delivered the pass that set up Cam Reddish’s tying three-pointer and then took a charge to send the game to overtime.
His first moment in the boxscore Friday at the Garden came on a fast break. Rather than try to fly in for a crowd-pleasing shot, he slipped the ball deftly to RJ Barrett, who scored easily.
Brunson didn’t even attempt a shot until 5:10 into the game, a three-pointer that he drained cleanly. He missed his next four shots, but that mattered little as he did everything else, diving into the front row for a steal and save, sending the ball ahead to Barrett for a layup.
“I think those hustle plays do nothing but unite and inspire the team,” Thibodeau said. “When we got our defense going, get some turnovers and we got into the open floor, it snowballs. And then everyone’s energized off of that. So any time we get a charge, get a loose ball, get a steal, your teammates will always recognize when you’re giving yourself up for the team . . . When one guy starts to do it, you get the whole team doing it.”
The Knicks had six players in double figures, led by Immanuel Quickley’s 20 points, as they shared the ball, taking turns tossing lobs for acrobatic dunks. To start the fourth quarter, the Knicks got dunks from Obi Toppin, then Reddish and then Toppin again in an 84-second span.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
