Jalen Brunson officially took his place as the 36th captain in New York Knicks history, a title given to him earlier this week as the superlatives for his career in the Big Apple continue expanding entering just his thrid season with the team.
“For me, it doesn’t really change anything that I change about doing every single day,” Brunson said on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. “I work hard, I do everything the same. The fact that I can wear that title… I’m honored… I can’t really put it into words. This is pretty cool.
“Who wouldn’t want to call themselves the captain of a franchise like this?”
His astronomical rise to superstardom since jumping from the Dallas Mavericks not only has made him one of the NBA’s very best players — he finished fifth in the MVP voting and was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 2023-24 after averaging a career-best 28.7 points per game — but one of its biggest bargains considering he was performing under a four-year, $104 million contract.
Following his brilliant campaign last year, the Knicks inked Brunson to a four-year, $156.6 million extension. A sizable deal, certainly, but one that saw the 27-year-old leave $113 million on the table to ensure the Knicks had the cap space to sign the final pieces of what he is hoping is a championship puzzle.
“I just knew if I did this, it would give us a lot of flexibility and put us in a position to win,” Brunson said. “I know a lot of people don’t agree with it, it’s not smart from an individual standpoint, but I know I’m comfortable here. This is home for me. I don’t worry about what anyone else says.”
Comfort is one thing but the belief in winning is something entirely different and that was an understandably large factor in why Brunson signed such a team-friendly deal.
“I want to win. I want to win here,” he began. “I want to be here for the rest of my career. Winning trumps everything I do individually… I always knew I wanted to be here. That was easy. If we’re going to talk in black and white… I secured myself for the future and we’ll go on from there.”
