Steve Popper: Captain Jalen Brunson leads Knicks by example
Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks dribbles past Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. Credit: Getty Images/Geoff Stellfox
CHICAGO — The subject of captains arose last week when Steve Cohen declared that as long as he owns the Mets, there will never be a team captain. And in baseball, it is a rarity, even if the few who hold the title often are revered, maybe more than in any other sport.
The Knicks have had no such hesitance, naming 36 different captains in the 80 seasons of the franchise. Some are more notable and successful than others. There are Hall of Famers and players who remain revered, with their numbers hanging in the rafters at Madison Square Garden. And there are some whom you’d have a hard time remembering that they were even on the team.
And maybe there are times when it doesn’t really matter. But there are times when it does, as long as the captain really is the leader.
Jeff Van Gundy used to talk about how his job was easier every day because Patrick Ewing was the hardest worker in practice, giving lesser players no excuse to not give as much as he did.
Brunson was named the Knicks’ captain in the summer of 2024, shortly after he led the team to an Eastern Conference semifinals appearance and then opted to sign a contract extension. It provided him with security but also left $113 million on the table compared to what he could have made if he had waited until the next summer to sign it. That gave the front office flexibility to build the team around him.
In the news conference in which he was introduced as captain, Brunson talked about his study of leaders such as Derek Jeter and Tom Brady. He insisted, “For me, it doesn’t really change anything that I go about doing every single day. I go in, I work hard, I do everything the same, but that fact that I can wear that title, it means a lot.”
Since then, most of his leadership has stemmed from his actions on the floor. Tom Thibodeau, who was the coach when Brunson earned the title, spoke about him leading through his work. Mike Brown inherited him as team captain and has seen the exact same thing.
Brown has spoken about the ups and downs of the season, particularly adapting and adjusting to a new coach and a new system. It is in those moments that having a leader in the locker room is invaluable.
Brunson’s teammates say he is not loud in that role but that his voice carries weight — such as when he spoke after the loss to Dallas last month that preceded a turn in the season from nine losses in 11 games to an eight-game winning streak.
“We had two streaks of I don’t know how many, but losing streaks where we didn’t flip the switch fast enough,” Brunson said. “So for us to be the team we want to be, we can’t let things sit there and watch and talk about things that are going wrong. We actually have to do something about it. We just have to be better whenever we get back on the court.”
Brown pointed to Saturday’s 108-106 win over Houston in which Brunson scored two points and took four shots — missing all four — in the first half. But he did other things, and when the game was in the balance, he took over offensively to spark a comeback from an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit.
“The thing that I like that he did, he didn’t just settle and/or focus on that,” Brown said. “His contests were unbelievable. His multiple efforts were unbelievable. Go back and watch the tape. He went to challenge shots last night, especially in that first half, like no other. And it was impactful. No chance of blocking it, but it was impactful. He took three charges.
“Great players find a way to impact the game. That should trickle down. Sometimes you can lead or be in that position of leadership and you don’t have to always say it. You can go out there and show it.
“[Saturday] night was a testament of that. He finally got going in the fourth quarter, shook loose a little bit and got going in the fourth quarter and he took us home. But the rest of his game was at a level that impacted at such a high level that if you’re not careful and you’re just watching the game, you’re not seeing the things I saw. I saw it better when I went back to watch the film.
“When you have your leader, your captain, your best player doing that, if you can’t try to figure out a way to do that, too, then shame on you.”
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.
