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SAN ANTONIO — After the final buzzer, after the championship was clinched and after he delivered one of the more convincing closeout performances in NBA history, Jalen Brunson was a kid again, searching for approval from his father.
And so, after putting the squeeze on the San Antonio Spurs, he saved the next and best one for last: An embrace with Rick Brunson, who obviously is much more than an assistant coach for the New York Knicks.
How many times in the distant past, back in the driveway or the schoolyard or after high school and college games, did these two hug it out following a pat on the head? Hundreds, perhaps. But were any of those father-son moments as meaningful as Saturday, when the son scored 45 points and carried the Knicks for much of the night — hell, much of this post-season run?
Let Rick Brunson tell it:
“It’s like, we couldn’t have imagined this, you know, back then. Just a dream. We would dream about it, talk about it. We talked about it earlier today. He said he wanted to be a champion. And yet I can’t believe it. It’s crazy.”
It’s real. As a skillful basketball player trapped inside an accountant’s body, Jalen Brunson, all of 6-foot-1 (… ish), defied the basketball law of physics and slayed all perceptions in the 2026 NBA Finals, clinched by the Knicks. In the fifth and final game, he was the best player, scored 15 of his points in the fourth quarter and was officially crowned the Finals MVP, on a floor in which he shared with a 7-foot-4 alien named Victor Wembanyama.
Check out the best highlights from Jalen Brunson’s performance in The Finals.
It made for a peculiar sight, Brunson darting back and forth through the Spurs’ defense, drawing fouls, dropping shots from all over, slowly elevating the Knicks on a night when, once again, they trailed for much of it.
But they had a savior, a leader, a clutch savant. Brunson emptied his bag, left it all on the floor. It was an amazing display of shot-making and determination, accomplished with a sinister purpose: To halt this dry Knicks’ championship stretch and make himself a Knicks’ legend in the process. Mission accomplished, times two.
“Words can’t describe it but I’ll say I put a lot of time and effort into trying to be the best player I can be to try and help a team win,” Brunson said. “It means the world to me.”
One witness in particular gave Brunson’s effort the certified stamp of approval.
“He’s one of the greatest Knicks ever, him, me, (Patrick) Ewing and Willis (Reed),” said Walt Frazier.
Interestingly: The last time the Knicks won a title, long before cell phones and the internet and other creature comforts we take for granted today, they were also led by a point guard. Frazier was tremendous in both the 1970 and 1973 championship series, and especially ’70 – when he dropped 36 points, 19 assists and seven rebounds in the clincher.
Brunson’s Game 5 had a similar impact, done differently. The Knicks were sketchy. Karl-Anthony Towns, his All-Star teammate, was in foul trouble. OG Anunoby, the hero of the previous game, managed only three baskets. The Knicks had just 37 first-half points and seemed in a fog.
“I was just trying to go out there, just will us to win,” Brunson said. “I wasn’t focused on anything else besides trying to win the game.”
Brunson would not be denied, and therefore, neither would his teammates, who were inspired by his tenacity and pursuit of the goal. Gradually, they followed his lead and collected themselves. And the Spurs were in trouble.
“They couldn’t stop him,” Frazier gushed. “The Spurs have excellent defenders and they were frustrated by Brunson, devastated by him. His greatness showed through.”
Frazier paused.
“They talk about his height and having no speed. Well, he found a way every series. And you know why? His game is right here” — and Frazier placed an index finger against his two temples.
Jalen Brunson scores 45 points as the Knicks clinch Game 5 on the road, beating the Spurs to win their first title since 1973.
Brunson won a pair of championships in three years at Villanova, then fell to the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, taken by the Dallas Mavericks. He was gifted to the Knicks four years ago; his father, who also played in the NBA, figured that “I just wanted him to come to New York, run a team, give his team a chance to win a championship.
“For him to be The Guy, it’s surreal.”
During the close out game, while his son relentlessly rallied the Knicks from 10 points down in the fourth, Rick Brunson’s stomach began to ache.
“On the outside, I was calm,” he said. “Meanwhile, I’m screaming inside.”
Jalen Brunson averaged 32.6 points in the championship series. He didn’t always shoot with high efficiency, yet when it truly mattered, those shots fell. Not just in Game 5 when he shot 14-for-27 and went 13-for-15 from the free throw line.
Actually, his faulty shooting games were just as impressive in this regard: Brunson proved himself in the clutch. In the two wins to open the series, he loomed large in the fourth quarter. In the 29-point comeback win in Game 4, he followed up similarly in the fourth.
Each time the Knicks needed a bucket or a change of momentum or a sliver of hope, Brunson answered. And he played the final minutes of Game 5 on a painful foot after he landed awkwardly on Wemby’s foot.
But his teammates knew. They saw how driven he was, how he refused to allow this series to stretch to a sixth game, where anything could happen.
Towns said: “I see a man that’s grown up and took the challenge of being in the biggest market in the world, being with a team that hasn’t made it the to the NBA Finals in 27 years and hasn’t won in 53 years, and knowing that he could do it.”
Well, about that: As he listened to a basketball world that wondered, with some justification, whether a player this small could achieve so big, Rick Brunson made a confession:
“I never thought he’d get to this level. I’d be lying to you if I thought he’d be this good. He was raised right, not by me but his mother. I was never clutch like him. I don’t have that gene.”
And this:
“One thing about him is he hears the noise. It affects me. It doesn’t affect him. He accomplished something that a lot of people said he couldn’t do.”
This is true. The son just set himself apart from most of his peers, and most impressively, those much taller and stronger and swifter. He will never buy another meal in Manhattan again. He pretty much assured himself a spot in the Hall of Fame some day.
He also changed the conversation forever. Never again will his size and shape be held against him. That perception, thanks to Brunson’s championship run and especially is close-out performance, is not rest in peace, but rest in pieces.
“I didn’t respond to them then, and I’m damn sure not going to respond to them now,” he said.
When the son approached and sought an approving bear hug on Saturday, the father’s words to him rang deep and true:
“What they gon’ say now?”
They will say Jalen Brunson is a champion.
Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at [email protected], find his archive here and follow him on X.
