A NIGHT WHEN BRUNSON FINALLY DELIVERED AND TOWNS CURTAILED WEMBANYAMA
The Knicks beat the Spurs by limiting the 7-5 force to 6-of-21 shooting, with Towns setting the stage defensively for Brunson to overcome injuries and lift his team — as usual — in the fourth quarter
Never is it a hearty sign when Rick Brunson, an assistant coach and a very concerned father, is giving guidance to the superstar of the Knicks. Did anyone consider what would happen if Harrison Barnes, of all people, fell on Jalen Brunson’s right knee and forced him to leave Game 1 of the NBA Finals? He returned, accepted counsel from his dad, and hit only six of his first 20 shots.
But as we’ve seen often — and why he might be remembered as the greatest of all New York ballers — Brunson summoned another fourth-quarter scoring flourish and lifted his team to a 105-95 victory over the Spurs. As his famous dreads swayed in the enemy arena, he became an unstoppable force who finished with 30 points before immediately demanding a meeting with crew chief Scott Foster.
He wasn’t celebrating. Lisa Salters was waiting with her ABC microphone. Brunson wanted to exchange words with the referee, not only about questionable calls and his injuries — Luke Kornet also stepped on his left foot — on a night when fans were brutal and a smiling nut with a camera walked onto the court.
“That’s a foul, Scott!” Brunson said during the game.
He elaborated and was held back by teammate Jose Alvarado, fortunate to finish as usual. “I get too emotional when I get caught up with injuries. Jalen’s tough as nails,” coach Mike Brown said. “To me, he didn’t seem like he had any effect afterwards.”
“I’ll be all right. I think it starts with my confidence,” Brunson said of bouncing back. “It comes with my work ethic. I think most importantly, knowing we’re on the road, and knowing my teammates have my back — I think that’s the biggest thing in an environment like this. The trust they have in me and the trust I have in them, it got us to this point. I’m very thankful for them every single night we go out there together. Wasn’t really my night most of the night. But we just kept chipping away. Kept finding a way.”
This was a game when Brunson finally delivered and Karl-Anthony Towns explored the impossible. He is a man of God, raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, never losing faith after his mother passed away from COVID-19 difficulties. If Towns was expected to help curtail Victor Wembanyama, he would wear his green and yellow sneakers and go to work.
The result was immaculate. If the Knicks proceed to win a championship, fans won’t forget how Towns and his teammates held Wembanyama to only 6 field goals in 21 attempts — 2 for 9 from the three-point line, with six turnovers — and won their 12th straight postseason game. In the final minutes, Wemby drove inside against Towns, missed the shot, then took a pass in the right corner and missed again. Brunson hit a three for a 97-95 lead and blew a kiss to the crowd.
“I don’t know what it was. I just felt a calm and a peace that I don’t know,” said Towns, who scored 18 points. “You trust your work and trust your decision-making.”
Wembanyama faces a new challenge. He must win Game 2 on Friday night, then head to New York and win at least one of three games in front of celebrities and other wild people. The Knicks are positioned to win their first title since 1973.
“I was bad tonight. It’s not more complicated than that,” Wemby said. “I think we let that one go.”
That wasn’t all. What about the fan who approached him with 6:28 left and attempted a selfie? Was Wemby actually smiling? He’s French, remember. “I’ve never been in that situation,” he said. “I didn’t know how to act. It really surprised me.”
It’s amazing how the day before, Brown asked Towns to remove his backwards cap during practice. He loves the Knicks wear, and he quickly took it off. When his mother came to the New York area from the Dominican Republic — he was paying tribute to the land with his shoes — she adored the energy of the basketball team. “My mom, when she immigrated here, she understood the magnitude of Madison Square Garden and what it means to the people,” he said. He became a fan of the team as a teen, when Jeremy Lin — during his Linsanity streak — was his hero.
“I truly want to give a shoutout to Jeremy Lin because he really made me a Knicks fan. It was crazy trying to find his jersey,” Towns said. “I have so much love for Jeremy Lin, he’s one of my favorite Knicks of all time, one of my favorite players of all time. He made me so passionate about the Knicks. It’s crazy now that I’m in this position, in this chair, talking to you guys as a Knicks player. They showed me the other day Jeremy Lin on social (media), for him to even mention me was kind of crazy because the love I have for him and what he’s done for me and my Knicks fandom is second to none.”
The Knicks speak of themselves as a family. You saw Brunson and his father. Towns will talk about his late mother forever. In an 18-minute video from 2020, he called her death “the toughest year of my life” and said, “At that moment I pulled the plug and just let her pass. … It just got to a point where it was harming her. I gave her all the time, and I made the hardest decision you can make.”
When he wins in the Finals, the moment is for Jackie Cruz-Towns. He said he saw her throughout the night. “You never know what life has for you,” her son said. “She taught me to always be grateful, through the good and the bad. Every single moment gives you a chance to grow.”
As for Brunson, he is aiming for his fourth championship in 11 years — he won two at Villanova and another at Stevenson High School in Chicago’s north suburbs. Is he the best Knick ever? Walt Frazier won’t go that far, still focusing on Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing. “Well, right now, a lot of people say he’s the greatest Knick ever because of getting them to the finals and obviously if he wins a championship,” Frazier said. “So I don’t think he’s the greatest Knick ever — I always say it’s Willis, and Willis said it’s Patrick, and Patrick says it’s Patrick. So he would definitely be on Mount Rushmore. We’ll put him up there if he can bring this title.”
In 2026, sorry, the New York travel freaks inside Frost Bank Center won’t agree. One title makes him a legend when Ewing never won a title. “I think that’s a question I would answer once I retire,” Brunson said of Knickdom. “This place means a lot to me and we’re still writing our story.”
What’s next? “I think we know what we have to do,” he said. “I think we’re a pretty together group.”
Said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: “He’s a tremendous player that’s skilled, picks his spots, knows his angles and shoots his contested shots without being sped up. He’s a phenomenal player. We just got to keep making him work. Again, he had a phenomenal game. He got going.”
Let Brown summarize the ongoing story. “He’s a gamer, man. In the biggest moments, Jalen shows up,” he said. “That’s what MVPs are supposed to do. He carried us home. We put the ball in his hands, and he got it done for us down the stretch.”
Three more victories. And Manhattan might plunge into the water.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host.