Knicks guard Jalen Brunson speaks during the championship ceremony at New York City Hall
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson speaks during the championship ceremony at New York City Hall
Jalen Brunson hosting Saturday Night Live on Sept. 26 is the right kind of ridiculous for this Knicks summer. The guy won Finals MVP, carried New York through a title run, then somehow found time to add Studio 8H to the calendar.
It is not a basketball story in the usual sense. It is a New York story. Brunson has become the face of the city in a way athletes usually do not reach unless they win something huge. The Knicks title did that. His 45 points in the Game 5 clincher did the rest.
Knicks championship parade vehicle displays a Jalen Brunson mural
A Jalen Brunson mural rolls through the Knicks championship parade. Credit: Brenden Willsch-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
The pressure of hosting live television is a completely different job from attacking a blitz. Brunson will probably be fine. He has the calm, dry delivery that works when a sketch gets weird, and he is not someone who needs to force attention onto himself.
Jalen Brunson has earned every bit of this Knicks summer
Brunson averaged 32.6 points per game in the five-game Finals. The off-court stuff lands because he took over the biggest games the franchise has had in decades. Fans are not treating him like a celebrity because he took a few good photos at a parade.
I love this for him. It feels earned, and it also feels very New York. A championship captain hosting the season premiere of SNL a few weeks before the next season starts is about as on-brand as it gets.
The Knicks season will start soon enough
There will be plenty of time for Brunson to answer questions about a repeat, his minutes, and every road game where an opponent wants to knock off the champs. For one night, he gets to do something lighter.
It should be fun. Then the Knicks open their season against Philadelphia, and the basketball part starts all over again.