Jalen Brunson is four wins away from becoming the greatest Knick of all time
Most NBA teams connect with their history almost passively. It's a shadow they live within. You walk past the Michael Jordan statue when you enter the United Center, but when you walk inside, you're watching a Bulls team entirely disconnected from everything he accomplished. Time marches forward.
That's not quite how it works for the Knicks. One of the best players in franchise history -- the legendary Walt Frazier -- has been the team's primary broadcast analyst for almost 40 years. Former All-Star Allan Houston has been a fixture in the front office across several regimes. Look in the stands in almost any meaningful game and you'll see a cavalcade of former players. Many of them, like Stephon Marbury and Carmelo Anthony, were fairly divisive among the fanbase during their careers. They get raucous applause now. Once a Knick, always a Knick.
It creates a somewhat unique dynamic when you remember their most notable shared trait. Most of these former Knicks didn't win championships, but their presence at these games, at least spiritually, makes it feel as though they're still trying. Generation after generation of Knicks building on one another, pouring whatever of themselves they can still offer from the sidelines into the Herculean task of ending the 53-year championship drought they couldn't snap on the court. It's all chronicled by Frazier, the team's last great champion, hoping to finally pass the baton.
Time doesn't march forward for the Knicks. We're watching the 53rd season of the same show here. The principal cast may change every few years, but the greats still show up for the biggest episodes. No one wants to miss the moment that the last lingering plot thread resolves. Bernard King got hurt before he could do it. Patrick Ewing came agonizingly close. Anthony never had the right teammates.
The Knicks have spent the bulk of this century trying to import an outsider capable of carrying them across the finish line. They tried and failed to sign Kobe Bryant in 2004, punted two whole seasons to carve out the cap space needed to chase LeBron James in 2010, met with him again in 2014, and were then spurned so famously by Kevin Durant in 2019 that they needed to do damage control by putting out the narrative that they actually weren't willing to pay him a max contract anyway.
The attempts felt like shortcuts, and that's part of why Jalen Brunson resonates so much with this fanbase. He wasn't someone else's icon gracing Madison Square Garden with his presence. He arrived in New York with one year of experience as a full-time starter. He's the sort of small guard who spends his whole career hearing about how players like him don't lead champions. He may have started his career in Dallas, but he hardly even felt like an outsider. His father, Rick Brunson, played for the Knicks' 1999 Finals team. His godfather, Leon Rose, runs the team.
Brunson era keeps getting better
SeasonReg. season PPGAll-NBAKnicks recordPlayoffs2022-23
24.0
N/A
47-35
Lost in second round2023-24
28.7
Second Team
50-32
Lost in second round2024-25
26.0
Second Team
51-31
Lost in East Finals2025-26
26.0
Second Team
53-29
TBD in NBA FinalsHe was family to the fanbase and city from the moment he arrived. After years of rejection, someone actively chose the Knicks, knowing fully what that choice meant. He grew from underdog to superstar while wearing the blue and orange, sharing the journey with both the fans and the icons watching from the stands. He's now led the Knicks to nearly as much sustained success as any of them. His arrival coincided with the team's first four-year playoff streak this century. They've won at least one round in all four of those postseason trips. No other team in the NBA today can say the same. He's now a three-time All-NBA player.
The on-paper résumé doesn't quite stack up to the best of the best yet. Ewing and Frazier hold most of the team records. Willis Reed won their only MVP. King and Anthony won their two scoring titles. Brunson is still in his 20s. He might have another decade on this team to go. That will be his accumulation phase. He has a bigger job now, the one that Ewing and Anthony and King couldn't finish. Even Reed and Frazier did so under different circumstances. They weren't burdened by the 50 years of history that followed them.
Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing were in Cleveland to present Jalen Brunson with the ECF MVP trophy on Monday.
Getty Images
Brunson, named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP on Monday after New York swept Cleveland, has carried that weight as comfortably as any Knick ever has. Though it came with admittedly lower stakes, he got to have his Willis Reed moment when he returned from a foot injury at halftime to lead the Knicks to a Game 2 win over the Pacers in the second round back in 2024. Anthony once drew plaudits for taking $5 million below his max salary to return to the Knicks as a free agent in 2014. When Brunson extended a decade later, he left