This 'bigger' Jalen Brunson claim bluntly puts Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic in his shadow image
Max Kellerman just put Jalen Brunson ahead of two of the league's biggest names, which could cause a stir in the NBA community.
After winning the NBA Championship with the New York Knicks, Brunson enters the conversation off a historic run as they broke a 53-year championship drought this past season. Along the way, he took home the NBA Cup MVP, Eastern Conference Finals MVP, and Finals MVP awards.
In the regular season, he made the All-NBA Second Team and averaged 26.0 points over 74 games. But his performance in the playoffs was something special. He averaged 28.4 points, 6.1 assists, and 3.2 rebounds across 19 playoff games.
In the five-game Finals series, that average rose to 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.2 rebounds as New York marched to a 16-3 postseason record.
On top of that, Game 5 of the Finals brought in 24.5 million viewers and peaked at 33 million. The whole series averaged 20.6 million. Plus, the Knicks are locked in for 34 national TV games next season, which ties them for the most in the league.
That’s why Kellerman made his case on the "Game Over" podcast with Rich Paul, saying, "Jalen Brunson is a bigger star than Shai – not close. Bigger star than Jokic – not close. None of those. The only guys who are on his level- he's a bigger star than KD. He's a bigger draw than KD right now."
When Paul asked him to clarify, Kellerman said he is talking about the league today, not career résumés [yahoo.com]. He used the TV schedule to prove his point. The Knicks are tied with the Lakers, 76ers, and Spurs at 34 national games. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder only have 30 and the Denver Nuggets have 28, even though Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won MVP.
Brunson ranks third in the league in jersey sales. It is another sign of how fast his popularity grew after the championship parade down the Canyon of Heroes.
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