Jalen Brunson Kills the Past in Year Two With New York Knicks

Jalen Brunson's focus lies solely on the present ... and maybe the future ... as his second year with the New York Knicks prepares to get underway.

When Jalen Brunson moved from Dallas, he took his weighty collegiate hardware with him.

They went right to his parents' home.

“I don’t have any championship rings at the house from college, I don’t have my (high school) state rings. l don’t have anything, the National Player of the Year awards, all that stuff,” the New York Knicks point guard said in a report from Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “That stuff’s at my parents' house because I don’t want to reflect on that. I don’t want to look at that stuff every day, because it’s not going to help me going forward. I’ve got to focus on how I can be better the next day."

“I’ve kind of always had that mindset. That’s just how I’ve been. I don’t want to be satisfied. I don’t want to be in a position where I’m comfortable because that’s when I’ll relax.”

One can only imagine how he'll regard an All-Star-free season that ended with a second-round exit.

Little more needs to be said about how Brunson met every expectation and then some after signing a four-year, $104 million contract last summer. That means nothing to Brunson: while he was widely regarded as one of the most unfair All-Star snubs, his Knicks missed out on a golden opportunity to reach their first conference finals since 2000 after dropping a semifinal series to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat.

That was hardly the fault of Brunson, who averaged a series-best 31 points and 6.3 assists over the six-game set. Consolation prizes, however, don't lead to banner raisings and they certainly don't appease Brunson.

“I want to win, and I haven’t done that,” Brunson said. “I want to win a championship at some point in my career, and I want to keep building towards that. It’s all about taking steps to get there. That’s how I stay motivated.”

Brunson (in white) played six minutes and scored 10 points in the Knicks' preseason opener / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Brunson is the only returnee to the Knicks' nine-man rotation that has partaken in a conference finals series. He did so in a breakout effort with Dallas in 2022, which served as the breakout that convinced New York to write a nine-figure check. 

The rest is instant history: the Knicks won 47 games and their first playoff series since 2013 after many felt their ceiling was in the purgatorial Play-In Tournament. Count Brunson among the many within the Knicks organization who know they're not sneaking up on anybody this time around.

“My preparation, my focus, is going to have to turn another notch up,” he said. “Teams are going to try to do things to get me uncomfortable, but I’ve been able to adapt in any situation. How teams play me or whatever, it’s all about how I can be effective to help my team win. They are going to take things away, but how am I going to respond to make sure we’re in a position to win?"

Brunson's focus thus centers on the road ahead ... and beyond. A poll of general managers posted on NBA.com listed Brunson as one of the active players most likely to make the leap to head coaching once his on-court career is over. That list was led by Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul for the second straight season and was closely followed by Mike Conley (Minnesota) and Garrett Temple (Toronto). 

The point guard referred to such a development as "very interesting" in another report from Braziller.

“I don’t know what level, but I’d heavily consider it once I’m done playing," Brunson said. "We’ll see.”

Brunson made the most out of a preseason cameo on Monday, scoring 10 points in six minutes in his unofficial season debut against Boston. A similar strategy will likely be employed when the Knicks (1-0) resume their exhibition slate on Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG2).