The most fun sports story I’ve ever covered for this magazine was, unquestionably, Jeremy Lin’s incredible fortnight back in 2012. (A headline from the time indicative of how thrilling it was: “Fifteen Reasons to Remain Unapologetically Over the Moon About Jeremy Lin.” I could have written 200.) There were many theories at the time about why Linsanity was such a revelation — the Knicks’ historical futility, Lin’s ethnicity, that he went to Harvard — but I still think the one I landed on back then still holds: He was the first organic Knick sensation in decades. For most of their futile, Jim Dolan-owned history since Patrick Ewing (or really since Dolan took charge in 1999), the Knicks have made ungainly, undignified attempts to persuade expensive, big-name stars to come to town — usually long past their expiration dates. Most of the time these superstar safaris are unsuccessful; here is your reminder that New York once featured a picture of LeBron James in a Knicks uniform on its cover. But it’s been even worse when they have succeeded. The Knicks’ awful decisions to either sign or trade for Joakim Noah, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Antonio McDyess, and Andrea Bargnani, among countless others, set the franchise back decades. This team has tried and utterly failed to outsource success.
Lin was such a phenomenon not only because he came out of nowhere; it was that he came out of nowhere within the Knicks organization. So many Knicks had arrived with heavy, burdensome expectations, expectations they would inevitably fail to meet. Lin was a discovery, and one that Knicks fans got to claim entirely as their own. They embraced him, if only for a brief, incredible moment, in a way they have embraced no such player since. That’s all Knicks fans ever want because that’s all any sports fan ever wants: They want to root for stars, sure, but mostly they want the scrappy kid no one believed in — which is to say, they want to cheer for players who can represent idealized versions of themselves. That’s why Knicks fans loved Lin so much. That’s what they haven’t had since.
Until now. As the NBA season wraps up this weekend and enters its grueling but electrifying playoff season, the Knicks have their most truly likable team in decades, led by Jalen Brunson, their most beloved player since Lin — maybe, considering how much weight they always put on Ewing’s shoulders in his prime, since Clyde Frazier. Fans adore this team for the same reason they loved Lin so much: because this Knicks team feels like ours. (And you are reading the words of a diehard Knicks fan, so you know.) When you watch Brunson, you see everything the Knicks have always wanted from a player: A star with deep connections to the franchise’s history, one who has ascended to these heights as a Knick throughout, and, more than anything, a player whose relentless fight and insatiable fire to overcome every doubter and obstacle in his way, represents both his city (or at least its image of itself) and his franchise at its absolute best. Brunson is the player we all imagine ourselves being, if we’d just had the chance. That’s the sort of player fans will walk through a wall for.
But the notion of Brunson as scrappy —he’s small, he was a second-round pick out of college, the Mavericks let him go for nothing — misses just how much he has improved his game, and how good he actually is. His 3-point shooting has become a legitimate weapon, his assist and rebound rates are at career highs, he’s likely to end up with the third-highest scoring season in Knicks history, and he’s doing it all for a team that essentially collapses when he’s not on the floor. But the glory of watching Brunson is not that he makes it look so easy; he is not Stephen Curry draining threes from the logo or Anthony Edwards falling from the sky to dunk on dudes. Everything Brunson does is hard. He plunges himself into the trees down low, he flings his body at the basket, he jukes and dances and shifts and adjusts his body in ways only a man with a truly great basketball mind could. He maximizes what he is physically capable of, which is all anyone could possibly ask of an athlete. And he has done all this with the Knicks: He has become his truest self for a team desperate to find its own.
As a result, the entire team has taken on Brunson’s identity, along with that of his mind-meld coach, Tom Thibodeau. From old Villanova teammates Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo to lumbering under-the-basket monsters Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson to defensive maestro OG Anunoby, the Knicks are a team of scrappers and grinders and floor-burners. And there’s nothing more fun to cheer for than that.
And yet there has been a creeping undercurrent of bummer-dom around the teams lately, thanks entirely to injuries. Anunoby and Robinson only recently returned (and still aren’t fully healed), and news broke last week that All-Star forward Julius Randle will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. Given the way this team performed when they were healthy — the Knicks were 15-2, and frighteningly dominant, when they had Randle, Brunson and Anunoby at full strength simultaneously — there is a sense among some that this season might be a missed opportunity, that heading into the playoffs without Randle will doom the team against juggernauts like the Celtics and Bucks. Those worries were exacerbated when the Knicks recently lost four of five, potentially dropping the team to a less-than-desirable seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But then, on Sunday night, the Knicks headed into Milwaukee to face the Bucks, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, the exact sort of superstars the Knicks have forever chased. And they did everything that Brunson, Thibodeau and the team has grown to stand for: They outworked the Bucks, they outhustled them and they outplayed them. Their win reminded you of not just what the Knicks are still capable of, but why their fans love them so much: They make you believe they can overcome anything.
This is an ideal spot for any fan heading into the playoffs, because it makes rooting for these Knicks nothing but a bonus. Without Randle, they’re not considered serious threats to the Celtics the way that they would have with him, which means if they do face them—as they are likely to do if they’re able to hold onto the fourth or fifth seed in the Eastern Conference—it’s essentially house money. The Knicks aren’t the Bucks, or the 76ers, or the Lakers, or the Suns, or the Clippers, teams that have chased every aging star and therefore have their entire existence riding on how they do in these playoffs: Losing early would be a disaster for any of those teams, because they expended so much capital, and mortgaged so much of their future, just to get to this point. The Knicks have been smart about avoiding that path —they are still a terrific destination with cap space to burn if a player like Luka Doncic or Joel Embiid or even Antetokounmpo hits the market — but because of those injuries, they get to retain their place as an underdog, which happens to be the place they’ve most clearly thrived. Knicks fans thus get the best of both worlds: If they win, they’ve overcome incredible odds and awful injury luck, and if they fall short, they get everybody back to try it again next year. That’s the result of a prudent and resourceful front office led by Leon Rose, and the fact that Dolan is (finally? Fingers crossed?) staying out of everybody’s way. But more than anything else: It’s the result of Jalen Brunson, a man who only has two years as a Knick under his belt, but feels like he has been here forever. He’s everything Knicks fans have been waiting for. The team may not go any farther in the playoffs this year than they did last year. But they keep making huge leaps forward, they’re as fun as any team in the NBA to cheer for right now — and they’re just getting started.
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Jalen Brunson Is the Superstar Knicks Fans Have Been Waiting For
7
1
10.04.2024
The most fun sports story I’ve ever covered for this magazine was, unquestionably, Jeremy Lin’s incredible fortnight back in 2012. (A headline from the time indicative of how thrilling it was: “Fifteen Reasons to Remain Unapologetically Over the Moon About Jeremy Lin.” I could have written 200.) There were many theories at the time about why Linsanity was such a revelation — the Knicks’ historical futility, Lin’s ethnicity, that he went to Harvard — but I still think the one I landed on back then still holds: He was the first organic Knick sensation in decades. For most of their futile, Jim Dolan-owned history since Patrick Ewing (or really since Dolan took charge in 1999), the Knicks have made ungainly, undignified attempts to persuade expensive, big-name stars to come to town — usually long past their expiration dates. Most of the time these superstar safaris are unsuccessful; here is your reminder that New York once featured a picture of LeBron James in a Knicks uniform on its cover. But it’s been even worse when they have succeeded. The Knicks’ awful decisions to either sign or trade for Joakim Noah, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Antonio McDyess, and Andrea Bargnani, among countless others, set the franchise back decades. This team has tried and utterly failed to outsource success.
Lin was such a phenomenon not only because he came out of nowhere; it was that he came out of nowhere within the Knicks organization. So many Knicks had arrived with heavy, burdensome expectations, expectations they would inevitably fail to meet. Lin was a discovery, and one that Knicks fans got to claim entirely as their own. They embraced him, if only for a brief, incredible moment, in a way they have embraced no such player since. That’s all Knicks fans ever want because that’s all any sports fan ever wants: They want to root for stars, sure, but mostly they want the scrappy kid no one believed in — which is to say, they want to cheer for players who can........
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