Jalen Brunson's All-Star nod a long time coming
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks drives to the hoop during the second quarter against Pascal Siakam of the Pacers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Jalen Brunson made a point of keeping away from his phone almost all of Thursday. He didn’t want anyone to tip him off to the results of the coaches’ All-Star voting before everything became official.
“But then I got on the court, I saw my dad and he looked at me,” Brunson said. “I kind of knew from that point on.”
It was no surprise to anyone that Brunson was chosen for the All-Star Game for the first time on Thursday, voted in as a reserve. The way he has played this season, it would almost be criminal for that not to be the case.
What was a surprise was the way the emotion of that moment carried over into an almost historic performance at Madison Square Garden as he scored 40 points en route to a 109-105 comeback win over the Pacers.
You can circle Thursday, Feb. 1, Knicks fans. Because not only was it the day that Jalen Brunson became an All-Star, the bet here is that it will go down as the day he became a superstar.
Brunson put up a performance that only the gutsiest superstars can. He not only produced seven straight points to give the Knicks a 95-91 lead but came through with a dramatic, message-sending bucket.
After being hit so hard in the eye that the Knicks had to call a timeout — a play on which the Pacers recovered his turnover for a go-ahead dunk with two minutes remaining — he drove straight to the basket for a layup that gave the Knicks the lead for good.
“He just never goes away,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.
The whole night was so emotional that Brunson, who usually keeps his emotions in check during interviews, teared up and couldn’t talk during his on-court interview after the game.
“It was really cool the whole experience — the night, how we won, obviously what happened before the game,” he said later. “You always work toward certain moments but you never know how to react once they happen.”
Brunson was one of two Knicks voted to the Eastern Conference team as a reserve in this month’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis. Julius Randle was named to his third All-Star Game, though he appears unavailable because of his dislocated right shoulder. This marks the first time the Knicks have had two All-Star players since Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler were on the team in 2013.
Brunson’s selection put an official stamp of approval on Knicks president Leon Rose’s plan to build a team around a guard who was considered an upgrade, but no superstar, when the Knicks signed him to a $104 million contract in the summer of 2022.
On the surface, the move had a lot of potential to blow up in the Knicks’ faces, given all the incestuous ties the team had to Brunson. Rose is Brunson’s godfather and former agent. He not only signed Brunson but added his father, former Knick Rick Brunson, to the coaching staff and added two of Brunson’s Villanova teammates, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, to the team.
The Knicks were all in on Brunson, and it is paying off as few imagined that it could.
In his first year with the team, Brunson pushed the Knicks to their first playoff series win in a decade before they lost in the second round to the Miami Heat, the eventual Eastern Conference champion. A little past the midpoint of this season, Brunson’s Knicks team is the hottest in the league, riding a nine-game winning streak and having won 15 of the last 17 to move within a half-game of second place in the conference.
Rick Carlisle, who coached Dallas for 13 years before becoming coach of the Pacers, is not surprised that Brunson is having this kind of impact in New York. Carlisle was the coach of the Mavericks when they drafted Brunson out of Villanova with the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 draft.
“No surprise. Zero,” he said when asked what he thought about the way Brunson has taken charge in New York. “That kid is special. He was special for us in Dallas. There’s just something about him. He has a bulldog competitiveness. He’s heard all the haters and detractors for so long that he just munches that stuff up and spits it out. Now he’s, you know, he’s an All-Star. That’s happening.”
Statistically, Brunson is having a career season and is the league’s 10th-leading scorer with an average of 27.1 points. He is averaging 6.4 assists and is shooting 41.7% from three-point range — a talent he’ll get to showcase, having accepted an invitation to participate in the league’s three-point shooting contest.
In his last 14 games, he is averaging 30.6 points per game.
Brunson, who was getting ready to walk on the court when his selection was announced on TNT, has said several times this season that it was his goal to play in an All-Star Game.
Those who know him well know how special a moment it will be for him.
Said Hart: “It’s cool to see. I know he’s not going to make a big deal out of it. It’s really dope to see.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
