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“I would be lying to you if I thought he would be this good,” Rick Brunson said, who played for the last Knicks team to reach the Finals, in 1999, when his son was just 2 years old. “I just wanted him to come to New York, run a team and hopefully have a chance to win a championship. For him to be the guy — this is surreal.”
Comparisons to Brunson’s achievement are scarce. The closest analogues might be Bob Cousy of the dynastic Celtics or Isiah Thomas on Detroit’s back-to-back champions.
Brunson averaged 28.4 points, 6.1 assists and 2.7 turnovers during the postseason; his scoring climbed to 32.6 points per game in the Finals. In all five series games, the score was within five points in the final two minutes — in those clutch moments, Brunson shot 6-for-12 and committed zero turnovers.
“People say he’s too small, people say he’s a 1B, or a 2B or whatever. He is a freaking 1A. He is an MVP candidate,” Brown said.
Hours after the final buzzer, the celebration was still raging in the visitors’ locker room. Champagne and beer soaked the floor, cigar smoke clung to the air and the Knicks finally celebrated a title generations of fans have longed to see.
Walt Frazier, a Knicks guard on the 1970 and 1973 championship teams, said he never expected the Knicks to go 16-3 in this postseason. Thursday’s parade through Manhattan “is going to be incredible,” he said.
New York’s title owes much to Brunson beyond what he did on the court. When he renegotiated his contract in 2024 after proving himself an All-Star, he deliberately accepted roughly $113 million less than his maximum value to give the franchise room to build. That summer, the Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns — both on the floor in the final seconds Saturday.
Remarkable, in hindsight, was New York’s faith in Brunson. He had started his career as a backup in Dallas, where he wanted to stay, until his attempts to negotiate a four-year, $55 million contract extension were rebuffed by the Mavericks, he recalled on the “All The Smoke” podcast.
Mavericks officials weren’t the only ones to wonder about Brunson’s long-term potential. Three years ago, former Spurs assistant Becky Hammon called Brunson “too small” and not a “1A” scorer. “If your best player is small, you’re not winning,” she said.
Her retired WNBA jersey hangs in the rafters of the Frost Bank Center. Beneath it, Brunson cradled the Finals MVP trophy Saturday night.
“I didn’t respond to the critics then,” he said, “and I’m damn sure not going to respond to them now.”
