Knicks' Jalen Brunson looks to inspire others with journey from second-round pick to All-Star Game
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks participates in the 2024 Starry 3-Point Contest during the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Credit: Getty Images/Stacy Revere
INDIANAPOLIS
Don’t let others count you out.
That, more than anything, is the message Jalen Brunson wants to send young fans as he gets ready to play in his first All-Star Game on Sunday.
All-Star Game rosters are filled with lottery picks. Brunson, whom Dallas took with the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 draft, is the only player on the Eastern Conference roster to be taken in the second round. In fact, the Knicks point guard is one of only two players on either team who was not a first-round pick. (The other, famously, is Nikola Jokic, who was taken by Denver with the 41st overall pick in 2014.)
Being drafted in the second round has become such a part of Brunson’s identity that his charity is named the Second Round Foundation. He hopes that through the work of his foundation and his journey from the second round of the draft to becoming an NBA All-Star, he can inspire others to dream big and work hard.
“That’s it. A thousand percent,” Brunson said at the East team’s news conference on Saturday. “That’s part of the mantra in the second round. If you’ve been overlooked at some point in any way, shape or form, it’s about doing what you need to do to get where you want to go and reach your goals.
“It’s a mindset thing. I was blessed to be raised by parents who put that mindset in me and I’m just trying to use that to help others.”
Brunson isn’t the only New York athlete looking to inspire others at All-Star Weekend. The Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu hopes her competition with Stephen Curry in their Saturday night three-point shootout — Curry won, 29-26 — will bring more attention to the women’s game and encourage more young girls to dream big.
While Ionescu was a No. 1 overall draft pick by the Liberty in 2020, Brunson’s journey decidedly had a few more twists and turns.
He didn’t start until his fourth year in the league. When the Knicks signed him to a $104 million contract in free agency in the summer of 2022, more than a few thought they were overpaying.
Now, however, it could go down in history as the Knicks’ best free-agent signing ever. Brunson, who pushed the Knicks into the second round of the playoffs last season, has put them in the conversation about top contenders this year.
At the All-Star break, Brunson is seventh in the NBA in scoring with a career-high average of 27.6 points. He has scored at least 40 points five times in the 52 games in which he has played and has gone for at least 30 points 22 times. Most importantly, he has the Knicks in fourth place in the Eastern Conference despite the fact that they are playing without three starters, including fellow All-Star Julius Randle.
Brunson, who participated in the three-point contest Saturday night but did not reach the final, has been so busy this weekend that he hasn’t quite had the time to absorb it all.
“Probably on Monday, after it’s all over, I will,” he said. “It’s definitely a cool feeling seeing people wearing your jerseys and calling your name. It’s something I won’t take for granted, for sure.”
While you could have predicted at the start of the season that Brunson would make it to this year’s All-Star Game — he probably should have made it last season, too — what you couldn’t have predicted is that he would be peppered with questions about the Knicks’ possibly winning it all this year.
Brunson, like Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, is always very careful not to look beyond the next game, but you can bet his goals don’t stop at making his first All-Star Game.
“Obviously, there’s chances,” Brunson said when asked what he thinks the chances are that the Knicks can win it all this year. “But we have to concentrate on Philly, our first game out of the break, and go from there. The best part about the journey is just taking it step by step.”
Step by step, no matter where you are drafted.
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.
