Marc Berman Reflects On The Knicks' First Championship in 53 Years | NY Got Game

Welcome back to another episode of New York got game. I'm Dexter Henry, you know the words Knicks are NBA champions and in talking to Knicks fans everywhere this summer. Some say that it's still a sentence that doesn't feel real and look I get it after 53 years of waiting this franchise has finally climbed back to the top of the mountain and now that some time has passed we can start to appreciate just how special that this run really was now Jalen Brunson. He recently revealed that he played through an injured wrist for the final stretch of the playoffs. So what we're going to do is we're going to go to film break down how he was still able to dominate on the biggest stage on a new edition of Texas clipboard. But first we're going to take a look back at the Knicks special run through the eyes of someone who lived just about every chapter of modern Knicks history. So we're going to talk with somebody who spent 23 seasons covering the team will chat about what it was like watching the Knicks win their first championship in more than five decades after leaving the Knicks beat and so much more. It's my former colleague. Some of you call him BOTP aka from the post the one and only Mark Berman George New York got game Mark. What is going on? How you doing? You are down in Florida. Now, you can just see by looking at you that Florida Sun has been treating. Well, how's it going man? I was great. Yeah, the Sunshine State the Sun never stops. I'm out on the tennis court quite a bit coaching playing giving lessons. So I'm having a great time. But that June was spectacular. I just enjoyed it immensely. I never expected it as you may expect from some of my prior tweets. But yeah, just it was it was marvelous here. No, it was look when they won you were among in the weeks that followed you were among one of the first people I thought about I said, look, I have to have Mark on the show. We did a lot of work together. We covered the Knicks together when there were not a lot of good days. So I was like I have to hear from Mark about this. So let me start here Mark because you spent 23 seasons covering the Knicks mostly during years when the championship felt I would say impossible. So when that final buzzer sounded in San Antonio did the former beat reporter in you react first or did you simply get to experience it as somebody who had become a mostly invested in this franchise now that you no longer cover the team? Yeah, I will say my beat writing Instincts kicked in and I was again in the final couple minutes when it looked like they were going to hang on. I was like shaking thinking like, oh my God, imagine if I was behind the computer having to write this up what I'd be feeling and you know, I really, you know thought about the current beat writers and bonds and popper Ian Begley. Yeah, it was just a lot of emotion for me because 23 seasons and I'm thinking about all the players and coaches. I cover. I think I covered a dozen or 13 coaches a few hundred players got me guys. I was thinking about guys like LeVar Postel Earl Barron Ron Baker Ricky the day all these guys. I've written all these stories about and here they are, you know, I'm two minutes away or minute away from the championship breaking the curse. It was very emotional for me and part of me. It was mixed emotions part of me wanted to be behind the laptop typing this up for historic story that would you know be forever red and another part of me was like, you know, I'm glad to be sitting here, you know watching it as a fan and I happen to play the biggest bet I ever made. I bet my entire balance of my hard rack app on the game because the Knicks were getting like four points and I figured there's no way like if they lose the game, it's going to be in the last few seconds. Then they're not going to lose by more than four points with the championship trophy in the building. So I was also happy to win a few bucks. Well now now you can do that. And now you can enjoy that. You no longer cover the teams. You can enjoy and partake in the betting there. So I'm happy that you were able to win a couple of bucks. So you talked about the emotion you talked about the emotion there Mark, right? That was kind of contrasting for you. Were you relieved even though you part of you wanted to write about the story were you relieved that you didn't have to write on deadline and you know, not write something there or did you feel kind of lost that you know, you won't have this byline that from the story that people would read forever which emotion ultimately won for you and let me also ask you this had you been sitting courtside or wherever you are in San Antonio. What would have been the opening line of the championship story? What do you think it would have been? Yeah, it was probably be something very quick and simple like the curse is over, you know, very short and simple first sentence. Yeah, again, I wouldn't want to I don't think I would have wanted to cover the entire run because I felt badly for those beat writers. Some of those Knicks comebacks, although they're so thrilling for the fans as a beat writer. You're like ripping up your entire story. You know that Cleveland comeback in San Antonio historic comeback. It's very difficult to have to rewrite the entire thing because you're writing throughout the game. But yeah for that one night, I probably would have wanted to be behind the computer and and see that championship. But not the whole marathon run. And you know, these beat writers again, they go from the championship to the championship parade to free draft free agency. I think Bond bonds went out to Las Vegas for this first part of the summer league. Hopefully he's going to get some well-earned time off but for that one night, I will definitely wanted to be writing up that story. Now as yet no Bondi was at summer league. He got back earlier last week and got got he's getting some much-needed rest that that is happening. But it is good to know you would have wanted to write that story and I'll go to this mark because one of the things that I've heard from Knicks fans is that in the final moments of game 5, they thought about their entire fandom and you just mentioned some of the players in all the years that you covered with the Knicks as a former beat reporter for you. You cover so many players. What was the most bizarre story? I know there's a lot but if you could pick one, what's the most bizarre story that you covered during the time around the neck? Yeah, it's actually not about a player. If you have to take one of the most bizarre stories from that horrible James Dolan era, it has to be that Larry Brown saga when I think for 40 days because I remember saying 40 days in the wilderness for Larry Brown for 40 days. The Knicks knew Dolan and Isaiah knew they were going to fire Larry. I think it was 2006 and they made him still work still do pre-draft workouts and the beat writers. We we would be outside the complex in Westchester on the road kind of blocking traffic waiting for Larry to show up because they weren't giving us access to him and for a few days, we staked them out on the road and we got him to come out of the car as he drove. He was driving by and we stopped him and he came out of the car and talked about the weird situation. He was in, you know, he wouldn't admit that he was getting fired, but I think he kind of knew from all the reports out there, but that was probably the craziest of the Dolan era. So but there's been a lot of weird stuff. Isaiah took over. I mean, like I said, the amount of coaches. I mean, it's just incredible when I and I was thinking about all those things in the final minute thinking about all those. Thousands and thousands of stories. I had written and then I couldn't write the breaking of the championship purse. Oh, I don't see. I don't want to say this, but maybe maybe you have to get away from the beat for the next to win. Maybe that's what to happen. Maybe that's where that Berman had to get away from the beat for all this to go down, but you're right. There was so much Madness Mark that we've seen over the years. I think for decades, it felt like every break and gone against the Knicks, but during this postseason run things actually started going their way. So when you look at the comebacks that they had right the clutch shots and then the moments that could have ended differently for a lot of Knicks fans. Do you look at this as a magical Knicks run or was it simply a great team repeatedly creating its own luck during the postseason? Yeah, I wouldn't say they're a great team. I think they did get a lot of luck, but you'd rather my father always said and my father was a great Knicks fan. Unfortunately did not last long enough died four years ago did not last long enough to see them win another title, but they got it was and I thought if they played Oklahoma City and I tweeted this during the Oklahoma City, San Antonio series. I tweeted Knicks fans need to be rooting for San Antonio. It's a much better matchup. I think OKC may have taken so they got lucky there. They got Philadelphia coming off of their grueling seven-game series. They got Cavaliers off a grueling seven-game series. So so they got the matchups. They wanted, you know, they didn't have to face the Celtics who were, you know, would have a lot of revenge on their minds. But listen, you can't take anything away from the magic. They woke they got hot at the right time. And that's what Mike Brown had told insiders. I spoke to someone early in the season when they were struggling someone because I once in a while. I'll talk to someone within the Knicks family and they were struggling and he said, listen, Mike Brown's experiment. He's just figuring out what's going to work best in the playoffs and he experimented and experimented and he found out what worked wonderfully and they just had this beautiful run after you know, they got through those early Hawks shaky games and it was just, you know, and Brunson you can't say it doing it with with a wrist injury. Also. I mean, it's just absolutely remarkable. The problem is that they can be able to repeat this magic, you know, I'm just reading the book a classic book to break through the game back from the early 80s by David have a stram about Portland Trailblazers and it was kind of humbling to to see them win the championship in like 77 and see the dismantling of their team and how tough it is to repeat every player thinks they're the greatest player in the world. I do think this next team though has a lot of character and I think their mindset will be in the right place, but the Blazers they win the championship. It was one and done. They never got there again. Naturally Bill Walton's injuries, you know, kind of hurt also hurt that team that Bill Walton didn't hurt really hurt that team chances. They didn't get back to the finals right until 1992. You can see them back in the finals again there. I want to follow up on something because you mentioned which we, you know, heard and talking to people about coach Brown and how he experimented and from afar. I wonder what you thought of his coaching through the season because I actually really liked it. I found it very refreshing. I like the way he experimented with the team. I thought it was very refreshing. I thought of something that Knicks needed. Did you look at it the same way? What did you think of how we coach a team through the regular season and then the results that you had obviously ended up seeing in the playoffs? Listen, obviously I was against the firing Tom Tibbetts. I thought it was an overreaction and I didn't and Mike Brown was not their first choice, right? So they get lucky there. Leon Rose gets lucky there. Jason kid was their first choice and thankfully, you know, Jason has a lot of his own issues and I'm very happy that he never came to New York. I think it would have been too much of a soap opera with Jason here. So Mike turned out to be the right guy at the right time. Listen, could Thibodeau have won the championship this year? Yes, he could have they were that Halliburton, you know, lucky three-pointer at the buzzer turn that conference finals around and it's going to make the finals a year ago. So Thibodeau could have won the title too, but I think listen for the media Mike was great. I mean, he's such a great quote. He's so candid. Unlike Thibodeau was very close to the vest, but I think he really was the perfect personality for this group right on the edge of a title and you have to tip your hat off to Leon and Wes, even though he wasn't their first choice. They made the right move and you know, Leon deserve, you know, we won't win. I guess he didn't win executive of the year this year, but usually you wanted to get later. So maybe he'll one day win executive year. He's done an amazing job. I never expected an agent to be able to come in like this and and do it and he did it and I and I've been very critical of him. I hate his media policy. I know Dolan influences that media policy, but I think it's very very poor that he still hasn't really sat down with the bead riders and spoken to them, but what he's done and built, built a championship team who plays the right way with great personalities. Just an amazing job. I leave. Yeah, got to give him credit for that there too. So you kind of alluded to this because there were some things that you did not like during this era of mixed basketball calling this the Leon Rose era. You didn't love the OG trade. I remember that you question the teams. You just mentioned from moving off from Tibbs and I believe I saw that you had picked the Sixers to beat the Knicks in six games. So let's begin the official Mark Berman. I was hacked on that. What'd you say? You were hacked. I was hacked on that section. Really? No, I listen and bead. Listen, if LeBron joins Philadelphia, I still don't believe in Philadelphia. Oh, I'm just such a wild. Yeah. I was listening. The Sixers have tremendous momentum. I thought they gave the Knicks a great run the year before a great series that they could have won the prior year. But indeed is just he's just one little ailment after another and sometimes it looks like he's not giving like a hundred percent. I mean, yeah, the Sixers were a disaster against the Knicks and if LeBron joins Philadelphia, I still don't believe in the Sixers dethroning the Knicks. I think if he joins Cleveland, I think Cleveland will give the Knicks a run for their money. But yeah, so the OG trade it was all about him staying healthy. He finally finally stayed healthy and was terrific. But you know, RJ and Emmanuel quickly were very good players and who knows if they stayed and the chemistry that they were building who knows what would have happened. But yeah, OG will forever be remembered for that tip. But he was fantastic that whole game. He was hitting quarter threes. He was playing great defense. There was a block that he's got a lot of publicity for but it wasn't just that tip and listen, did he deserve the SB four? I mean, it was a poor play by San Antonio because no one boxed him out. But the magnitude of that clutch play by OG. I mean, he's got ice in his veins. He just seems to never get nervous. It was just about his head and he proved a lot of people wrong by finally staying healthy. Which of these? Yeah, listen, I'm not a hundred percent right on everything I predict. But listen, I started the countdown on my Twitter after they beat and I had 14. I had a sign 14 wins to go. If you go on my Twitter feed, I was back, you know, with a countdown. So I believe this team had the wherewithal to win it all. I thought they'd lose the NBA Finals though and truth, but I really thought they would make the finals and the Sixers thing was a bad moment. Dad, that wasn't a good look to pick the Sixers. Did are there any of those takes whether it's, you know, the OG, whether it's the Sixers, whether it was, you know, hiring Leon Rose. Are there any ones that you're happiest to have been wrong about that? Did you like? Hey, I was just winning the title winning the child. They want the title. Right. Listen, there was a I think I had a tweet and everyone was in agreement early on in that Atlanta series. I said, I think they're going to need Giannis to make the final step and and it turned out that they got red hot. Everyone played to their potential including Carl Anthony Towns and Bridges had great great moments and it turned out they didn't need Giannis but early on in that playoffs you were thinking wow, they're a very very good team, but they may need Giannis to take the next step now. They don't need Giannis. They don't need LeBron. Will they repeat? I mean, everyone's going to be gunning for them. It's a different world when you're the defending champions. Yeah, so and there's going to be a lot of pressure on him. So and they have to stay healthy. Listen, they stayed healthy. That was another great great thing that I didn't ever thought this was a team with great durability. They stayed healthy. Can they do it next year? You know, you never know. Well, here's the thing. I think a lot of Knicks fans are happy. They don't have to talk about Giannis. They don't have to talk about LeBron. Remember the days we're talking about. Hey, is LeBron going to come here? We don't have to have that conversation. Mark. This is all about. Okay, the Knicks have their team. We'll see if they can defend. We'll get to that in a second. But I want to ask you about Jalen Brunson because you called him one of the greatest closers NBA history, but you've all said you're not ready to place him above Walt Clive Frazier as the greatest Nick ever. Now some younger Knicks fans have been willing to do that. So after 45 points, we saw in game five and a championship clincher. He's got the finals MVP. In your eyes. What does Brunson still have to do in order to pass Clive in your personal ranking? I mean, obviously the easy answer is to win another championship, but I will say if he gets the team to another NBA finals. And is as great as he has been in the last couple of years. I'd have to say maybe he is equal if not better than Walt Walt won two NBA championships. He was a great defender. Jalen is a great offensive player. He's still not a good defender, but he's he's such a clutch shot maker. It's just it's really and I was just reading that SI cover story Sports Illustrated. No one reads Sports Illustrated anymore, but he's on the cover and he he had a great quote in that story. He said that I'm not afraid to lose, you know, as long as I'm playing the right way, I'm not afraid to lose and I thought that when Carmelo Anthony came to the Knicks, he was afraid to lose and he did not become that clutch player that he was in Denver, but Jalen says he's a clutch player because he's willing to get the ball in the final minutes because he's not nervous about and it was a very revealing quote. And yeah, you want the there's no other NBA player you want with the ball in the final 20 seconds. Then including Janice, you know, it's like Janice. He's not even a good three-point shooter. He's not from 20 feet. He's not even a good shooter. So it's like you want Jalen who could score at every place on the court from the three-point line driving mid-range his, you know, lefty layups or whatever. He's just got all these great moves that was my biggest regret in retiring never being able to cover that greatness because I thought I'd be covering Carmelo and I thought that would be a thrill for me and it turned out. He was just a big disappointment. You know, he just was not a clutch shotman. You talked about missing out on covering Brunson because you've had some memorable exchanges with players over the years. Even I remember after you left on media day and it was that media day the year after you retired former Nick Mitchell Robinson former Nick. Now, he said that he missed you which I was shocked. I was like a player actually miss Berman here, which play I got to ask you on this championship team would have been the best match for let's say the full Mark Berman experience. Who do you think would have loved you covering the team and maybe would have got tired of your questions at first like Mitch did sometime? Yeah. Well, I'm wearing my t-shirt that says relax. I don't know if you could relax Berman. I can see it. Yeah, I think Jalen actually Jalen is a tough nut to crack in that locker room. You could either even see Salters of the network get very frustrated with Jalen's very subdued responses. And I think I I would probably he would get frustrated with me trying to dig and try to get something inflammatory. He just will not budge. So I think Jalen and I as much I would have loved covering his clutchness and his greatness. I think in the locker room we would have, you know, it could have gotten ugly on a couple of occasions. It's funny because Rick had when I told him I was going to about to retire before that 22 training camp. He had texted me and said, oh boy, I was looking forward for you to cover my son. And I felt bad about that because I had written so much about Jalen, you know, in the year prior to them signing him because we all knew how much Leon had wanted that signing. Although everyone else was skeptical wondering what Leon was thinking about including Mark Cuban. But yeah, I think Jalen would have been tough and maybe Josh Hart because Josh Hart seems to be a kind of a guy who's going to shoot it right back at you. So if he didn't like one of my questions, I think we would have had a few interesting exchanges. Oh, yeah. I think those two for sure. Brunson's not going to give you much but when I'm not saying that you ever ask bad questions because you didn't but if you gave something there, he could come back with a zing. He's gonna he's gonna give it to you. Yeah there too. So let me ask you this Mark. Do you miss being the next beat writer and covering the team daily or did you just miss what you mentioned earlier in this conversation just covering the recent championship moment? Do you miss the whole thing or just you miss not being able to cover this championship? Yeah, listen, I I knew I was ready, you know, when you're it's time and it was time 23 seasons so many losing seasons so much travel dealing with the next media policy just breaks you down. So I was ready. But yeah for one night, I missed it. But no, I'm enjoying my life here in Florida. So much a lot more than I thought I would I thought I'd miss it more to be honest, but those deadlines and the amount of content. The New York Post is an amazing sports section the best sports section by far in the country. Bondi is doing a great job. Jared Schwartz is doing a great job. Caro obviously is the best columnist in the country, but they want a lot of content and it was tough because the next media policy they shut down a lot of attempts by me even when I try to talk to I remember one frustrating. I was trying to talk to Obi Toppins brother who was playing for Kentucky and I had the interview all set up and the morning of the interview the Kentucky PR person said, you know, Jacob is decided he can't do the interview and through research. I found out the Nick shut it down. So it was frustrating. So I don't mind dealing with the next PR people. I know things have changed maybe a little bit. They have a new PR guy, but Dolan is still there and it would have been frustrating to still deal with Leon Rose not talking to the media. So no, I don't I don't listen. I enjoy watching them as a fan. I don't have the package, but I see him on national TV every time they're on almost and they're going to be on a ton this year. Oh, yeah, and you know, also LeBron's new team will be on it a lot. In fact, silver said he's waiting for that decision because he needs to set the schedule, but the Knicks are going to be on all the time in national TV and I can't wait. But no, I I've enjoyed my life in Florida too much. But and again, I salute those beat writers who were able to to withstand this entire marathon season and they're going to remember it for the rest of their lives. Yeah, they are. I was just I was just talking to somebody from another outlet about that the other day to defend and he was like, man, I'm just I'm tired from this whole run. And I think it was tiring for a lot of people. I think sometimes fans Mark, they don't understand the grind that you just laid out, right? The traveling the the late nights is sometimes having a rewrite if there's a change in the game having to do content with me, right? Sometimes we have to do postgame stuff. So that's the fun part of it. That's the only fun part. I appreciate that. I feel like we always had fun. It was good. Yeah. Now you still you still engage with the Knicks fans because Knicks fans if you don't know Mark is still active on social media. He just talked about all the stuff. He was tweeting out during this finals run. How do you still enjoy the process of just watching the team and engaging with the fans without the responsibility of being a journalist? Did you really enjoy that particularly in this past year during the run? I don't know if I enjoy it because anything I tweet the Knicks fans are going to come at me. They think I hate them. They think I'm rooting against them constantly. So no matter what I tweet, they always take the negative part of it. So it's sometimes a little frustrating. But yeah, it keeps me active. I think without Twitter, I probably maybe miss it a little more not being on the beat but having you getting a chance to tweet once in a blue moon, you know, keeps me sort of engaged a little. So I do enjoy it. But listen, the Knicks fans are amazing, even though they most of them hate me for some reason. They don't hate you. They're a national story. The Knicks fans are a national story. I think there are fans that think some beat writers and people that cover the team dislike the team and do you feel that too? Or why do you think that disconnect is there? Because I think that disconnect really exists. Yeah, well Knicks fans. They just want to see everything in a positive light and as journalists, we have to look at the negative. Sometimes we can't just we're not the public relations department and we're not MSG Network. So they watch MSG Network and Alan Hahn and Wally, you know, they're positive positive positive and that's not what the New York Post is going to be and you know, people don't understand. We have to, you know, be very objective and anything negative they think oh, you must hate but we're just trying to be in the middle. We're trying to be fair. And yeah, I thought the move to fire Thibodeau was a bad move at the time. I thought he deserved one more year and I still believe that Thibodeau could have gotten them to the finals. But regardless, I do think that you know, they see MSG Network. They see the positivity. They hear Mike Green and you know, they expect us to be Mike Green and Alan Hahn and we're not. Yeah, I do feel that disconnect and even sometimes on this show where I've been critical or you analyze things you talk about things in certain ways fans will comment. Why are you being negative? I'm not being negative and something or you know, like you said sometimes you have to talk about the negative right? Yeah, that's all about the negative and the positive. Our jobs are to be fair and balanced and call it down the middle. That's what we're supposed to do. Last thing for me here. The Knicks, they now have to handle a shorter offseason, right? You talked about the pressure of being the champions. They have the loss of Mitchell Robinson. So when you remove the emotion from this run, do you personally believe that the Knicks will win it again in 2027 and in your eyes, what's the biggest thing that could stop them from repeating this champion? Well, that will depend on where LeBron goes if he comes to the East. I think Oklahoma City is going to be very formidable. I think they could get to the finals again. I think Mitchell Robinson is going to be a big loss. And by the way, obviously, he's him and McBride were the last two players I had covered. So now I'm down to miles and I felt great for Mitchell because I've and bonds did a great great piece. I call him bonds, but not bonding. Bonds did a great great piece on Mitchell's full career how he started off as this naive kid from the Louisiana, you know, farm country and became, you know, an NBA champion and I was really upset to see him go. And honestly, when I realized they weren't going to resign him once Dolan said his thing about the second apron. I thought back to something Scott Perry told me a few years ago when Scott Perry was the GM. He had mentioned off the record something about a move that they were considering and it felt like a very win just for one year mode. I said, but I don't know if that's good. We were just chatting off the record. I said, I don't know, you know, you'll be great for one year. But then after that there was oh, we're just trying to win one championship. We're just trying to break the curse. We're just trying to win one one, which is, you know, one championship is good. And then when Dolan said that I'm like, wow, is he trying to repeat? Because why would you be talking about the second apron so quickly after the title? So I think the Mitchell Robinson letting him go to Boston is going to be very tough Drummond is okay. He's not Mitchell and he's never been in this type of pressure-packed championship situation. Mitchell had the offensive rebound that essentially won the title in the final minute. I don't know Drummond's going to be able to get those key make those key plays. So the big men's big man situation is an issue, especially if Towns is hurt Drummond is hurt. They're very thin. So I think they could get to the NBA finals, but I just think OKC is still coming back strong and I would bet OKC if I was going to wager again. I would I would still bet OKC to win the the 2027 championship. See, you know, it's going to happen here. Mark people going to hear you say that you're going to bet OKC and then say you're hating on the Knicks. That's what's going to happen. You know that I hope I'm wrong. And yeah, I'm sure you would like. I'm not going to play. So you'd like to be wrong again with the Knicks man, but now it was fun. I think that like I said, it was so fun for me to think about it for you. And I said, I got to talk to Mark because I know he enjoyed watching this from afar without the stress and the deadlines of having to do everything around the team. I was nice that you were able to enjoy it. We miss you here at The Post, but I know you do not miss the doing the job and the grind, but we miss you and all the years you had. So I got to say thank you man. Thank you for coming on with me and talking about some Knicks and maybe we do it again if the Knicks win another one. We'll see. Yes, we'll see. Hey, they didn't exceed the second apron. Maybe they repeat. Maybe the curse is broken and the floodgates open up and the Knicks win a couple of championships. Who knows? Yeah, I'd be surprised, but it would be great to see a back-to-back but nothing will ever top what happened though last month and breaking the curse that first time. It's just it was great. My son had flown into town from LA and you know the week of the final few games and he was able to experience all the excitement and that's what I thought of too at the final buzzer was hoping he would be safe because I didn't know what kind of mayhem would occur but the cops were all over the place and did a great job, but thanks so much Dexter again. I meant it. One of the most fun parts of being on the Knicks beat was being able to come on to your shows across the years and I again we were talking off the camera about doing the shows from the court in the you know, 2007 2008 and you know after games talking about 40 point blowout losses. So, I mean to be at this moment is as a tree. I will say this for people don't know when Mark and I were doing videos is back in 0708. There were a lot of times. We didn't he's right. We didn't have a lot of stuff to talk about and oftentimes Mark if you remember we be talking about the other team sometimes or what players or could the Knicks then lure this player to come? Yeah, that's how dire it was for the Knicks fans and just even content at that time. So no, man, I appreciate you. Thank you again for coming on and we'll connect again soon Mark. Thank you so much. Thanks again. Dexter. Jalen Brunson's performance during the Knicks championship run was already historic. He won finals MVP. He averaged more than 32 points per game against San Antonio all while saving his best for last as he finished the season by scoring 45 points in the championship clinching game. But now we know there was another layer to that performance Brunson recently revealed that he first felt weakness in his left wrist while shooting free throws during game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Cleveland. He couldn't identify the exact play that caused it, but he played through the rest of that series and the entire NBA Finals before eventually undergoing surgery to repair a tendon issue in his left hand and wrist. Look, everyone is hoping that Captain Clutch has a speedy recovery, but having this information now only makes his performance so much more impressive. So how did Brunson continue to control games at the highest level while dealing with an injury to his shooting hand? Let's go to the clipboard and we're going to start with number one. The first reason that Brunson can remain effective is that his offense has never been entirely built around explosive athleticism. He doesn't have to be the fastest player on the floor. He has to control the speed of possession. And when you watch how Brunson comes off the screen, he doesn't immediately attack at full speed. He slows down, allows the defender to recover, and then changes direction as soon as that defender's weight shifts. Now that change of pace creates the separation and what you have to take a look with Brunson on plays like this is his feet. Brunson is almost always under control when he gets to his spot. He can stop quickly, pivot, step through, or rise into his jumper without needing a large amount of space. That matters a ton when you're playing through an injury. Now, while we can't know exactly how much the wrist affected him on every possession, we do know Brunson's foundation, his balance, his footwork, and his ability to change speed gave him ways to create offense without having to overpower his defender. And we saw that play out during the Knicks historic Game 4 comeback. Brunson, he got Victor Weminyama on the perimeter, used a crossover to get the defense moving, and created an open three for OG Adenobe. Now later, when Wemby switched on to him again, Brunson created enough space to hit a pull-up three directly over him. He didn't win those possessions with pure speed. He won them by controlling the defender's timing and that is what matters here. Now, the second key is the way Brunson creates and attacks angles. At 6'2", and that's being generous, he has spent his entire NBA career finding ways to score around longer and more athletic defenders. And that experience became even more important against the San Antonio defense, built around the length of Wemby and several big perimeter defenders. Now, watch in this video how Brunson gets his shoulder between the ball and the defender. Once he wins that angle, the defender is no longer guarding the ball. He is chasing Brunson's body. That allows Brunson to protect his dribble, keep the defender on his back, and decide whether to finish, stop for a short jumper, or pass to the open man. Now, in these moments, his body control becomes so important because Brunson doesn't always attack the rim in a straight line. He uses the defender's positioning against him. He can veer into the defender, create contact, keep his balance, and then finish from an angle that the shot blocker cannot easily reach. But body control isn't only about scoring. Also helps him manipulate the entire defense. And in game four, the Knicks, they repeatedly brought the player Wemby was guarding into ball screen actions with Brunson. Now, San Antonio, they tried switching, pre-switching, and sending additional help to keep Wemby from being isolated on the perimeter. But the captain, he stayed patient. When the double came, he didn't force the shot. He moved the ball and allowed the Knicks to attack a defense that was now scrambling in ways it hadn't before. New York scored 34 points on 23 of those ball screen chances in game four, which was a dramatic improvement from the first three games of the series. Now, that is the difference between simply being a great scorer and controlling an entire possession. Brunson uses angles to create his own shots. He also used San Antonio's fear of his scoring to create shots for everyone else. And then, that brings us to number three. At some point, all the footwork, the pace, and defender manipulation is still to produce a basket, right? And when the Knicks needed one the most, Brunson, well, he continued to deliver. In game four, with the Knicks trying to complete the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history, Brunson scored nine points in the fourth quarter. He hit the three that cut San Antonio's lead to one. And on the final Knicks possession, his gravity pulled both Wenbinyama and De'Aaron Fox to Worden, removing San Antonio's best rim protector from the paint and helping to create the opening for O.G. Ananobi's iconic game-winning tip. But with all that being said, the defining performance came in game five. The Knicks, they trailed 83 to 73 with less than eight minutes remaining. Brunson, he then scored the game's next 10 points all by himself. He erased the entire deficit. I'm going to say that again. He erased the entire deficit all by himself. And with just over one minute left, he hit that 12-foot jumper that gave the Knicks a 90-88 lead. Brunson finished with 45 points, 29 of them in the second half, 15 in the fourth quarter as the Knicks then went on to close out the championship. And this is what makes the performance so remarkable. It wasn't just that Brunson played through an injured wrist. It was that he continued to execute the most difficult part of his job, which is to create quality offense when every defender in the building knew one thing. They knew that he was going to get the ball. So the other day, a friend of mine who, for context, roots for the Sixers, he asked me, how are all these 6'7 and 6'8 guys unable to stop Brunson throughout the entire Knicks playoff run? And he was also perplexed as to how Brunson was still able to cook with an injured wrist. Well, look, the tape doesn't lie when it comes to looking for an answer. Angles and body control allowed him to protect the ball, manipulate defenders, and control San Antonio's coverages. But shot making allowed him to turn all of those skills into baskets, especially when the Knicks needed them the most. Look, the wrist injury adds another chapter to the legacy of Brunson's championship story. But the bigger lesson isn't simply that he was tough enough to play through the pain. It's that his game is built on skills that hold up when the stakes lie, when the defense gets more physical, and also when his body isn't at a hundred percent. Jalen Brunson didn't just survive the NBA Finals. He controlled them. That is why he ended the season as a champion and the NBA Finals MVP. That is going to do it for this episode of New York Got Game. Special thanks to my entire team on this one, producer Erica Block, editor Eduardo Guerrero, technical director Abdiel Bermudez, and production assistant Brandon Kramer and Jessica Beeson. Fantastic job as always from everyone. I'm Dexter Hem. We will catch you next time on New York Got Game. And thanks for watching New York Got Game. Bubba Shakalaka!