THANKS TO BRUNSON, AS EMBIID BROODS, NEW YORK STORMS OVER PHILLY
Joel Embiid is a thug, as he proved again in Game 4, and he made things worse by ripping Philadelphia fans, who were outshouted by Knicks road warriors cheering their biggest hero since Patrick Ewing
Know what dazzles New York about Jalen Brunson? He took the Knicks down those 98 miles on Interstate 95 and beat up the 7-foot, 300-pound goon who tries to portray himself as a weeper. As usual, Joel Embiid was a bully in Philadelphia, using his knee to damage groins and his forearms and elbows any way the officials allow. He used one thug shot in the third quarter Sunday to nail Brunson, who recovered in the locker room.
Why wasn’t Embiid tossed from the game, as he should have been earlier in the series when he fell to the floor and yanked down Mitchell Robinson? Brunson preferred life this way in Game 4 of the first-round series. He returned and continued to deliver the greatest playoff performance ever in a Knicks uniform, mashing it in Embiid’s face as he missed all five shots in the fourth quarter. He finished with 47 points and 10 assists and led his team to a 3-1 lead over the 76ers, and better, he meant enough to the interminably thirsty fans who flocked on train trips to Wells Fargo Arena.
And they outshouted the home folks — if you can believe it, somehow — which stands as a sociological development that could be written about by Bruce Springsteen, who is still touring, and Jon Bon Jovi, who is still doing personal documentaries, and anyone else in New Jersey. Why the advertising world keeps running Carmelo Anthony commercials is far beyond me. It’s time to introduce a new star navigating a team that hasn’t won an NBA championship in 51 years.
“The Philadelphia fanbase is very relentless and very passionate. I mean, I’m an Eagles fan, I would know,” said Brunson, who won two national championships in the suburbs at Villanova. “But seeing the Knicks here and hearing the Knicks here, it was pretty cool and it’s awesome.”
If New York loves to ridicule Philadelphia, here is the perfect time to pile on. The 76ers are going to blow the mysterious, injury-marred career of Embiid, who can be spectacular and also make you shake your head every time he crashes to the court. Amazing to see the Knicks — with Brunson and two of his former hand-me-downs — turn the building into a college reunion. When, if ever, has Philly been blitzed out at home in the postseason? Embiid, who never will win a league title and might retire before long, was bummed out.
“Disappointing,” he said. “Think it’s unfortunate, and I’m not calling them out, but it is disappointing. Obviously, you got a lot of Knicks fans and they’re down the road. Never seen it and I’ve been here for 10 years. Yeah, kind of pisses me off, especially because Philly is considered a sports town. They’ve always shown up and I don’t think that should happen. Yeah. It’s not OK.”
Seems Knicks fans have reason to be excited when 76ers fans are in a trance. They couldn’t win under Doc Rivers, who failed with Embiid and James Harden, and they’re falling short to Brunson and seasoned coach Tom Thibodeau despite the immense talents of Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. For decades, since winning in 1973, the Knicks have brought in city stars ranging from Bernard King to Patrick Ewing to Pat Riley’s bloodballishness to Anthony. Michael Jordan decided not to take an offer when he was a free agent. LeBron James has made verbal overtures and — who knows? — might accept a final opportunity this summer if he’s sick of the Lakers.
For now, they love Brunson. Still just 27, he’s a 6-2 guard who can take over a physical game with toughness and grit. And I say that after residing in the northern suburbs of Chicago, knowing he replaced NFL media standout Kyle Brandt as the most famous recent alum of our high school. He senses the Eastern Conference is supposed to belong to the Boston Celtics, but if the Knicks can take down the Sixers, why not dream? He’s only the third player in NBA history, joining Damian Lillard and Kevin Johnson, to have at least 45 points, 10 assists and zero turnovers in a playoff game.
“I’ll look back when I retire," Brunson said. "Seriously. It's great right now, it helped us get a win. But it's not going to do anything for us going forward.”
He’s the darling of Madison Square Garden celebrities, happy to know Spike Lee wears a Brunson puffer jacket to games. As he told ESPN, “When you see celebrities come and sit courtside and meet them, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m a big fan.’ And they’re like, ‘No, I’m a big fan.’ That is pretty surreal sometimes. I’m enjoying it. It’s a dream come true. It’s everything I want.” The Knicks signed him for $104 million over four years in 2022. Consider it an all-time bargain, seeing how the Celtics gave $304 million to Jaylen Brown.
To one-up Embiid should be painful, in a health perspective, to America’s basketball fans. But aren’t we tired of his act? The other night, the big man revealed he has been playing with Bell’s palsy, which weakens muscles on his face, and has been dealing with migraine headaches. This season, he sat out with a torn left meniscus. He returned and scored 50 points in Game 3, but if he thinks his injuries bring an understanding of his vicious altercations, it looks bogus. “Your competitive nature is always going to take over and I felt like they always come back in this series,” Embiid said. “So I was like, I’ve got nothing to lose, just going to push myself and obviously it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.”
As he mopes in the offseason, the Knicks should advance to the conference finals. Brunson has known Thibodeau since he was 10 years old, thanks to his father, Rick, who played in the league and remains on the New York staff. Some people can’t stand Thibs, including Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, whose only post-Jordan success came when a semi-maniac was on the sideline. Look at the Knicks. Notice how the Bulls keep slumbering. “I think yes, he’s passionate, but the one thing we all understand is that he’s prepared,” Brunson said. “So he’s not really yelling at you for some BS or something that didn’t happen or whatever. He’s more proactive versus reactive, so it’s never really something that as a player we can be like, ‘I didn’t do that, or this hasn’t happened yet.’ Like, he’s preparing us.”
It’s working. “I think we learned that throughout the course of the season. Jalen has played at such an incredible high level all season, and we can play off that,” Thibodeau said. “Everyone was questioning Jalen being a leader.”
Not anymore. Brunson just devoured Philadelphia and Joel Embiid. “We’re really just giving him the keys and we’re going as far as he goes,” teammate Josh Hart said.
Indiana should be the next opponent. So what? “WE WANT BOSTON!!!” the fans already are chanting outside the Garden, and those Amtrak tracks, as they know, also head to Massachusetts.
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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. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.