Knicks' Jalen Brunson can find added motivation as he faces Pacers
Jalen Brunson has talked openly about his lack of interest in awards and accolades. He keeps his place decorated only with a handful of jerseys of teammates and friends and hands trophies and honors to his parents to keep in their home.
But he does collect something. Brunson will never say it, but doubt him, slight him, and he will store it in a vault.
It’s not visible. There are no clippings pasted on his walls. But they are there, piled neatly to form a chip on his shoulder.
And as the Knicks readied for their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Indiana Pacers, there were obvious motivations.
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle was Brunson’s first NBA head coach in Dallas and held him in check for his first three seasons in the league more than any defender has since. Tyrese Haliburton became a friend when he and Brunson played together on Team USA last summer, but Haliburton got a spot on the team headed to the Paris Olympics this summer and Brunson did not.
Brunson will never admit it, but you can be sure that somewhere in his mind, those slights are adding up.
“That is a good question,” Brunson said. “In all honesty, I said this last time, you’re in the playoffs now, there is no extra motivation. It is what it is. The past is the past. Rick welcomed me into the league and helped me become the player [I am today] and helped me grow from Day 1. Coaches got to make decisions that better suit their teams. Whatever happened happened, and we’re moving forward from there.”
Brunson averaged 35.5 points and 9.0 assists in the first round to lift the Knicks past Philadelphia.
Haliburton, who was as good as anyone in the NBA before suffering a hamstring strain in January, averaged 16.0 points and 9.3 assists in the Pacers’ six-game win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
“Great player,” Brunson said. “We met a couple of times, but we didn’t really become friends until last summer. Great guy, great family. He became one of my friends obviously through the experience last summer, and I have all the respect in the world for him and the way he plays the game. He goes out there and plays the right way and does what he needs to do.”
As always, the proper words are spoken by Brunson. But you know that until he retires, those chips and slights will be placed in a spot where he can feed off them.
Does he need them? No. Will he use them? Yes.
“He’s someone that playoff time, when the ball tips, he has nothing to say to [Carlisle],” Josh Hart said. “Once the series is over, [he’s] going to go back to having a great relationship. I know however many games this next series is, he views [Carlisle] as an enemy.”
Brunson not only has established himself as an MVP candidate this season but has continued to build his postseason reputation.
It’s one that began in Dallas after Carlisle departed and gave way to Jason Kidd as the Mavericks’ coach. Last season with the Knicks, Brunson exploded in the second round against Miami before committing a turnover in the final moments of Game 6, a play that still replays in his mind.
After struggling with his shooting through the first two games of the first round, he found his footing, putting up historic scoring numbers in the final four games — 41.8 points and 10.3 assists per game.
It may surprise Carlisle and it may fray some nerves for Grant Hill, who put together the U.S. Olympic team, but it didn’t surprise Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I was pretty confident because I watched him grow up,” Thibodeau said. “And so, just watching him in the gym — you don’t know initially. He’s a young kid. But the way he grew up in a gym with pros, the questions he would ask and the way that his father [Rick, a Knicks assistant] would work him out, you saw each step how much he was growing.
“When he got to high school, you’re like, this guy has a chance to be pretty good.
“And then you add to that his experience with USA Basketball in high school and then, of course, college. And the thing is, it’s like, every year he’s gotten better. And that’s a testament to him and his work ethic. But you saw just the way he shot the ball, and I think the shooting probably gets overlooked. He put a lot of work into it. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
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.
