Who Believes in Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks?
Draftism still explains why we're not prepared for Jalen Brunson
Friend of HoS Nate Duncan has been tracking the oddly quiet story of New York Knicks playoff dominance. The Knicks are not only up 2-0 on the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals, but they’re a historic +221 over their 12 games in these playoffs. I don’t believe that I, as a member of the casual sports fan public, was primed for this outcome. Even though the Knicks were 4th in preseason championship odds, and even though they came within a half game of their preseason win total, and even though their games qualify as a near Met Gala for stars, the sports media hype has not matched the results.
Perhaps you could accuse me of sports ignorance, but I didn’t get pushback when declaring the story “underrated,” in reply to Mr. Duncan. And in response to my statement, NBA expert Nate said:
Yeah, I don't get it. They really have not resonated nationally at all these last few years. Is it that people don't enjoy watching Brunson (and Randle/Towns)?
I might be the wrong person to ask because I enjoy watching both Brunson and Towns. I understand that Brunson gets a lot of flak as a flopper, but he’s outside the top 20 in free throw attempts. Subjectively, he comes off as one of the more personable stars in the league.
We’re probably about to go through a major Knickslash of overcorrection where this huge brand in the league’s biggest market gets a blast of publicity. New York hasn’t won a title since 1973 and hasn’t been to the Finals since 1999. They’re the closest franchise basketball has to the pre-2016 Chicago Cubs, and a plausible championship would make for a huge storyline. I’m still curious how we arrived at our current condition of sleeping on the Knicks, though.
Simply put, I think it mostly comes down to team star Jalen Brunson. Not only do people not believe in Brunson, but by his own admission, they never have. Cue the Knicks fan hype video of media members expressing their doubts. The clip kicks off with Brunson himself explaining:
Ever since high school started for me, it’s been, ‘Jalen Brunson’s good, BUT.’
He’s short for an NBA player. He looks stocky, if not pudgy. Just take a gander at the exact photo Nate posted in his graphic:
That doesn’t look like an NBA player. That looks like an NBA streamer.
Perhaps based on that image alone you could forgive the clipped media doubters for expressing their skepticism. The most infamous of the comments came from now Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who in 2023 dismissed the Knicks’ future on ESPN:
At the end of the day, they don’t have a dude. You gotta have a dude, you gotta have a 1A dude and they’re missing that at the end of the day if we’re just getting down to brass tacks.
In my opinion, the aspect of the full clip that really made it viral was Hammon slipping into a surprise blaccent as she argued the case against Brunson with Kendrick Perkins:
Naw he too small!
Hammon was just saying what most basketball people believed, albeit with the most shocking code switch of 2023.
Readers of this newsletter can probably guess that I see the popular analysis of Jalen Brunson as shot through with draftism, the bias that has nagged the reputation of local last picked quarterback Brock Purdy. Brunson, despite an excellent two-time championship career was drafted 33rd by the Dallas Mavericks. As one basketball fan put it to me:
It’s a bias thing. People’s original take was he was too small for the league, then he gets a big contract from the Knicks and it’s universally panned, then okay he’s good, but not 1A good. Most media people just never want to admit they were wrong and so bias towards ignoring it.
Since getting his own team, Jalen Brunson has tangible accomplishments on par with Anthony Edwards. Yes, I understand that Edwards is younger and is a freak athlete who can impact the game defensively. I’m not arguing that Brunson is better than Edwards. I’m simply making the point that, based on just statistical production and overall winning, an AI bot might tell you that Brunson’s been the better player over the last 4 seasons. And it certainly doesn’t feel like these players are in any way comparable, at least based on the discourse surrounding them.