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Jalen Brunson has been proving people wrong his entire life and last Saturday he added another accomplishment to his mantle when he led the Knicks to their first championship in 53 years after toppling the San Antonio Spurs in five games.
It was on the back of Brunson’s 45-point barrage in Game 5 that steered New York to another one of its notorious comebacks and sealed his case to be NBA Finals MVP — his third MVP trophy this season after taking home Eastern Conference Finals MVP as well as NBA Cup MVP earlier in the year.
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On a grander scale, the point guard’s performance on the biggest stage cemented himself as a Knicks all-time great, which was on full display during Thursday’s championship parade.
Following speeches by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Knicks owner James Dolan, team president Leon Rose, head coach Mike Brown and others, Brunson was summoned to the podium as the only player to give a speech and received a raucous welcome — even a standing ovation by some — from fans gathered in front of City Hall before chants of “MVP! MVP!” broke out.
The Finals MVP who just finished his fourth season in New York by bringing a championship back to the city began his speech by thanking the front office for “believing in a kid no one else would,” his teammates for “giving [him] confidence every single day” and his family for “their sacrifice” for without, nothing would be possible.
Brunson also made sure to shout out the fans, who he admitted can be his biggest critics at times.
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“Most importantly, thank you to the fans. I’m not gonna lie, y’all are some pretty hard critics, but we appreciate it,” he said. “At least I do. Appreciate it a lot.”
Brunson gave himself some time to reflect on the moment while also revealing he had no doubts he and the Knicks would pull it out.
“Damn, we really did it dog. Somehow, someway, I knew we were gonna find a way to get this done,” he said.
To close out his speech, Brunson alluded to the haters, of which there are plenty, who have publicly spoken ill of him or his size or his talent in the past. And while the message was clearly directed toward those…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jalen-brunson-silences-critics-knicks-182524954.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-18 18:25:00
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