Knicks All-Star Julius Randle Credits 'Diligent' Jalen Brunson For Injury Recovery

As Julius Randle prepares to make his way back from spring's ankle injury, he credited his New York Knicks teammate for paving him a path to this year's hardwood.

Even with all his metropolitan accomplishments, Jalen Brunson is no doctor. But he might've provided a bit of a cure to Julius Randle's ankle.

A stellar season for Randle, one that saw him average a double-double in his fourth tour with the New York Knicks (25.1 points, 10 rebounds), ended in relative heartbreak: with five games left in the regular season, Randle endured an ankle that prevented him from a perfect 82-game attendance in his second All-Star showing. Randle returned in time for the Knicks' playoff trek but was clearly not at full strength, averaging 16.6 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting just over 37 percent from the field.

Speaking at a live edition of the LeBron James-produced program "The Shop: Uninterrupted" in Brooklyn, Randle credited Knicks teammate Jalen Brunson for helping him get back on the floor and work through this offseason. 

"One of the biggest people that honestly pushed me was Jalen, my teammate, because I saw how he worked," Randle said of Brunson, per SNY's Ian Begley. "I'm a worker and I saw how diligent he was, his focus level to it. So JB's really pushed me."

Brunson's apparent medical motivation is simply yet another way the former Dallas Maverick has lived up to every expectation a $104 million contract placed upon him and then some. Considering the relatively quiet offseason the Knicks have engaged in, the de facto swap of Obi Toppin for Donte DiVincenzo being their biggest move by far, management seems comfortable with letting Brunson and Randle headline one of the more realistically optimistic periods on the recent New York timeline.

Randle hinted that his point guard could help him build off of his final season to date despite its last-minute interruption and find a sense of balance that the ailment altered.

"I was talking to my trainer about this today, we were talking about prime years," Randle said. "I feel like your prime is when your mental and physical kind of meet. Physically, I feel like this is going to be my best year. But I feel like, mentally, I've taken a tremendous step because I've had to slow everything down (while rehabbing)." 

Randle also declared that Brunson is one of several of his largest motivators, a list that also includes last spring's playoff foe Jimmy Butler from Miami as well as the aforementioned James.

“I’ve studied a lot of people. I studied LeBron and watched how he used angles,” Randle said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. "I watched Jimmy [Butler] in the playoffs. All of these guys. We’re all copycats at the end of the day. We learned the game from somebody.”

Now comes the hard part: justifying the hype this season created.

Speaking with host Maverick Carter and alongside rappers Method Man and Joey Bada$$, Randle addressed inevitable concerns about the 2023-24 season. In the first sign of New York optimism, the ankle in question featured no form of cast or support, which only further hints that he'll be ready to take the floor come the fall.

The Knicks are looking to form their first playoff streak since 2011-13 this time around, but Randle hinted that the team has greater expectations. 

“It’s always going to be unfinished business,” he said. “So we made it to the second round, we have aspirations for obviously bigger and better things. We want to win a championship at the end of the day.”

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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