It's been about 17 months since Jalen Brunson made the decision to leave the Dallas Mavericks and join the New York Knicks. People occasionally talk about the Mavericks' position on Jalen Brunson's contract value slightly lower than that of the Knicks, or imagine what it would be like for Jalen Brunson to continue to partner with Mavericks star Luka Doncic. However, what people are looking forward to more is how far the Knicks can go since Jalen Brunson wears the Knicks jersey. Last season, the Knicks went 47-35 in the regular season and made it to the second round of the playoffsSo far, the Knicks have a 17-14 record this season, ranking seventh in the Eastern Conference. From organizing tactical threads to constantly cutting in and tearing apart opponents' defensive lines like a sharp blade, Jalen Brunson is at the top of the Knicks' offensive line.
Jalen Brunson is at home with the Knicks, and his overall performance and form have improved a lot compared to the Mavericks. One of the key reasons is that Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau adjusted and cooperated with Jalen Brunson.
Tom Thibodeau first met Jalen Brunson when Jalen Brunson was five or six years old. Tom Thibodeau was an assistant coach with the Knicks at the time, and Jalen Brunson's father, Rick, joined the Knicks in 1998. In Tom Thibodeau's memory, the young Jalen Brunson often ran into the Knicks' locker room after the game, imitating the shooting moves of Alan Houston and Latrill Sprewell, and even Larry Johnson's signature "L" move was also a good game for Jalen Brunson Jr. has been running around the NBA world with Rick for a long time, and Jalen Brunson's love for basketball since he was a child surpasses that of children of the same age, and at the same time, he has also worked hard to absorb everything he has seen and experienced. "You wouldn't think he'd be a professional footballer or something like that one day, but it's really incredible. Tom Thibodeau said. "Everybody is going to break down. He learned their footsteps, their tentative steps, everything. ”
It's like fate in the dark, Jalen Brunson, who imitated the players in the Knicks locker room as a child, returned to the familiar Madison Square Garden when he grew up, and did leave a good record on the court, handing over a career-high 24 points and 62 assists and 35 rebounds, three-pointers also came to a new high of 416%, with an average shot of 4Two goals from 7 attempts. In the regular season last season, Jalen Brunson was the best player in the Knicks' critical moments, and his ability to dominate the game was not lost to other superstars in the NBA league. Judging from the NBA's key moments, Jalen Brunson made a total of 47 shots in key moments last season, ranking fourth in the league. In addition, the Knicks eliminated the Cavaliers 4-1 in the playoffs, and then lost 2-4 to the Miami Heat, who later advanced to the championship game, relying on the red-eyed and high-spirited Jalen Brunson. It is worth noting that Jalen Brunson has become the second player after "Melon" to score at least 20 points in 11 consecutive playoff games.
The combination of Jalen Brunson and the Knicks was not optimistic about many people at first, and they also held a critical perspective, especially when the Knicks were involved in the illegal recruitment of Jalen Brunson - the Knicks just hired Rick as an assistant coach a month before the free market opened in 2022, and there is also a question about whether Jalen Brunson's skills in the Mavericks are worth such a large contract with the Knicks. Jalen Brunson took these criticisms to heart and waited to fight back with his actual performance. "It's impossible not to hear the voices of these dissenting people at all. Jalen Brunson said. "But I'm going to do everything I can to keep these things out of me, because there are times when I know I'm capable of proving these people wrong. ”
I really don't want to use this as something that motivates me. What drives me is to be on the pitch every day and try to be the best player I can be. That's what I've been doing, what my parents taught me. For good or for bad, you can't listen to what people say. You have to stay calm. Actually, it's a blessing in disguise, because it keeps me trying to keep going and keep my hunger at bay. ”
The counterattack from Jalen Brunson doesn't have to wait too long. On March 31, 2023, the Knicks and the Cavaliers faced Donovan Mitchell, the number one free agent target that the Knicks originally wanted to fight, Jalen Brunson scored a career-high 48 points on 18-of-32 shooting, beating the former's 42 points. A few months later, in the regular season game against the Phoenix Suns on December 15, Jalen Brunson delivered 50 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 steals, including 9 of 9 three-pointers, leading the Knicks to seal the win and surpass his own record. Although the Knicks couldn't hold the low-post offense of Suns center Yusuf Nurkic on the defensive end, as well as Durant and Devin Booker, Jalen Brunson still broke the deadlock in a different way and won the final victory for the Knicks.
In this 50-point battle, Jalen Brunson did not miss any three-point shooting records and tied the record of Knicks guard Sprewell, who knew him as a child, and former Chicago Bulls shooting guard Ben Gordon. In fact, Jalen Brunson didn't act recklessly in pursuit of the highest scoring record, and in the face of the Suns' wrap-up defense, he looked for gaps to pass to center Isaiah Hartenstein to score;Seeing that Julius Randle had a gap, he still did not hesitate to pass the ball.
It just happens naturally with the pace of the game. I don't think he tried to score 50 points or anything. He just got off the court, played the right game, got to his position, and then shot. Julius Randall said. Interestingly, after the game against the Suns, Julius Randle immediately rushed to Alcidiacono with the ball in his hand, to protect the game ball and hand it over to Jalen Brunson - which seems to have become an unstoppable thing since the dispute between Antetokounmpo and the Indiana Pacers.
He's the kind of player. He was very unselfish and played the right basketball. Usually, you play like that, and good things happen. Julius Randall said.
Since childhood, Jalen Brunson's parents began to instill in him about the importance of hard work, and one of the most common words on his lips is the phrase "the magic is in the work", and the miracle is hidden in the effort. "They wrote it on the wall and it was also visible in the mirror when I woke up. Jalen Brunson said. "They also wrote it in the lunch bag I took to school. Anyway, just make sure I see this sentence. This remark had a considerable impact on Jalen Brunson, and later Jalen Brunson also put this sentence in his own **. Rick has said that even Tom Thibodeau used this phrase in his later coaching work.
It's really true. Tom Thibodeau said. "There are no shortcuts. Your actions reflect your priorities. So when you come to the team in the summer with a big contract, and then more importantly you come to the gym every day, that means a lot to me. Tom Thibodeau remembers Jalen Brunson when he signed a contract with the Knicks, and he quickly reported to the Knicks' training gym and began training. Gradually, other Knicks players were affected, and more and more joined Jalen Brunson's summer practice.
Jalen Brunson's hard work and dedication, and the fact that he will give all his personality in the best interests of the team, in addition to the education from his family and the strict discipline from Rick, has also had some impact on seeing Rick's career change firsthand. When Rick played for the Philadelphia 76ers, Jalen Brunson remembers a warm-up game when he walked back to the locker room and went to the general manager's office. Then that season, when Jalen Brunson was gleefully talking about the 76ers' opening game, Rick told him, "Son, I'm not going to play for the 76ers." I was laid off again. ”
It was at that time that Rick found a new purpose in life. "I don't want you to live the life I'm living now. Rick told Jalen Brunson. "If you're really going to be a basketball player, listen to what I'm telling you, you're going down a different path. ”
Rick will continue to give Jalen Brunson a workout after school, layups, ball control, shooting positions, etc., and even the whole training process, there is a lot of trash talk. Once, when Rick saw Jalen Brunson playing on the side of the street and getting caught in a trap, he even scolded directly: "No one here wants to watch you play by yourself." You pass the ball out or you get out. Many parents on the sidelines felt that Rick was too harsh on Jalen Brunson, and in fact, even his wife, Sandra, occasionally couldn't look at it. Sandra, a paralegal herself, once mentioned to Rick that she didn't need her kids to play basketball because she seemed to see another life that could be laid off at any time. However, Rick just thinks that as long as Jalen Brunson can get through this hurdle of his own, then he will not be afraid of anyone in the future.
Tom Thibodeau once said that Jalen Brunson's basketball achievements are due to the nurturing and teaching of Rick and Sandra. After retiring from playing and becoming a coach, Rick has not forgotten his cultivation of Jalen Brunson. In 2010, when Tom Thibodeau coached with the Bulls, he hired Rick to join his coaching team. Jalen Brunson, whose family moved to Chicago, is often driven by Sandra to the Bulls' training ground at Rick's behest to practice with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Later, when Rick transferred to Charlotte Bobcats to teach, Rick still kept an eye on Jalen Brunson's performance, and even left Charlotte after the Bobcats practice and flew to Chicago just for Jalen Brunson's game. Jalen Brunson's growth at every step and breakthrough at every stage has Rick's support, spur and hand in hand.
Many people in the NBA industry know that Jalen Brunson's achievements are inseparable from Rick. "Rick and Jalen (Jalen Brunson's name) would be there, and then he would teach Jalen very strictly. Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin recalls meeting Jalen Brunson for the first time when he was an assistant coach to the Bulls under Tom Thibodeau. "I used to watch him teach Jalen for a long time, and then Jalen got better and better. I would look at my kids and tell them that we're going to start training too, we're going to the gym. ”
Years later, in this season's Christmas game, Adrian Griffin saw the young man who had worked hard under his father's trash talk now slaughtered his team on the pitch. Adrian Griffin arranged for Malik Beasley to guard Jalen Brunson, but Jalen Brunson would always find gaps in the Bucks' defense by covering again and again, and then pursue them further. 38 points is not the highest score Jalen Brunson has scored against the Bucks, an imaginary opponent in the Eastern Conference, but it is the first time Jalen Brunson has defeated the Bucks since joining the Knicks, and it was also in the Christmas game that was broadcast live nationally.
Sometimes, we don't get to see the best form of some players in this league because they don't have that opportunity. Bucks guard Lillard said of Jalen Brunson. "But with him, I'm sure everybody saw it. They kept playing through him, giving him every opportunity, and he made the most of it. Teammate Donte DiVincenzo praised Jalen Brunson as one of the toughest players he knows, even if he knows he's not the most athletic and tallest, but he knows how to dominate and dominate the game.
However, many people are still not very optimistic about the Knicks. In fact, just a few days before the start of the Christmas game, WNBA legendary champion player Becky Hammon, who is also the head coach of the Las Vegas aces of the WNBA league and ESPN analyst, was asked about the performance of the Knicks, and once said that the Knicks still belong to the second division of the league because they do not have a top guy who can lead them up, and also said that Jalen Brunson's size is a shortcoming, and there is only one Curry after all. A few days later, Jalen Brunson presented Christmas gifts to fans in New York.
Indeed, looking back at the history of NBA championship MVPs, only Jerry West, Isaiah Thomas, Tony Parker and Curry are under 188cm tall. But the giants will also have a day when they will be crushed, just like on the day of the Christmas War, Jalen Brunson, who fought back with a practical performance, finally led the Knicks to defeat the Bucks and broke such a curse.
Like so many times in the past, in the face of people's doubts, he still resolutely pressed forward, killed his opponents, and then enjoyed the fruits of victory. Believe in yourself and complete the journey of greatness.