SAN ANTONIO — Jalen Brunson has a story. In 2018, Brunson, then a rookie second-round draft pick, played in a pickup game with Luka Dončić. Brunson marveled at how Dončić, Dallas’s celebrated draftee, moved effortlessly on the floor. Watching Dončić, Brunson recalled, “made me kind of question myself, to see how hard I actually had to work to be in the position I wanted to be.” It was the first time he felt that way, Brunson said, adding, “probably the last.”
The Knicks beat the Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, and there was no question who the best player was on the floor. Brunson finished with 30 points, 19 in the second half, 13 in the fourth quarter, when New York grabbed an eight-point lead, coughed it up, then needed some Brunson heroics to secure a 105–95 win.
“He’s a gamer, man,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown. “In the biggest moments, he shows up. That’s what MVPs are supposed to do. We put the ball in his hands and said we were going to live and die with him … and he got it done.”
Got it done. This is what Brunson has been doing since he signed with the Knicks, since the Mavericks decided he wasn’t worth the $100-ish million needed to keep him. He averaged 24.0 points in his first season. He was an All-Star in his second. He has made three straight All-NBA teams, entered the MVP conversation and has pushed New York one win closer to a championship.
“With the ball in his hands,” said Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, “I’m never surprised.”
Jalen Brunson left it all out there in Game 1 😤 pic.twitter.com/6qa6EOqdpY
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 4, 2026
It nearly went differently. In the first quarter, Knicks guard Landry Shamet shoulder-blocked Harrison Barnes, sending the Spurs forward crashing into Brunson’s right leg. Thousands of shell-shocked Knicks fans who penetrated Frost Bank Center watched in horror as Brunson limped to the locker room. He didn’t stay long. Brunson returned to the bench early in the second quarter and was healthy enough to play 19 minutes in the second half.
And what a second half. San Antonio is loaded with sturdy perimeter defenders. Stephon Castle. Dylan Harper. Carter Bryant can be counted on for a few minutes. It didn’t matter. Brunson went at all of them. He was 5 of 9 from the field in the fourth quarter. His 23-footer with fewer than two minutes left erased the Spurs’ brief lead. His 14-foot pullup with 37.8 seconds left all but put the game away.
“He’s a tremendous player that’s skilled, picks his spots, knows his angles, shoots contested shots without being sped up,” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “He’s a phenomenal player. We just got to keep making him work.”
Here’s the thing, though: San Antonio didn’t make Brunson work. Not like, say, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who the Spurs bumped and grinded in the Western Conference finals. They shifted less, bumped Brunson less and too often gave up on the switches. Brunson doesn’t have the hardware of Gilgeous-Alexander. But he’s just as dangerous.
Especially when he has help. In his first Finals game, Towns was fantastic. Towns (18 points, 12 rebounds) played Victor Wembanyama (26 points, 12 boards) to a virtual standstill. OG Anunoby had 12 points in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart had 15 rebounds and four steals. Shamet chipped in 13 points off the bench. Against the towering Wembanyama, New York scored 50 points in the paint.
“This team has unity,” said Towns. “It has camaraderie. It was special, something I thought we showed the world last year. It got us far in the playoffs last year, and just kind of growing off of that from last year, having another year with each other, even more familiarity.”
It showed. The Spurs led by seven at halftime. Midway through the third, the lead was 14. The arena was rocking. The fans in the multicolored jerseys were drowning out the blue-clad ones. This was where the sharp edge of the team that just played a seven-game series would cut through the one coming off a weeklong layoff.
Nope. The Knicks’ resiliency showed. Mikal Bridges made a bucket. Shamet made two. Towns, a menace on the offensive glass, scored on a putback. By the end of the third quarter the game was tied. They gave Brunson a chance. And he took advantage.
It’s hard to describe the brilliance of Brunson. He’s not big. He’s not fast. He’s not particularly athletic. But he has the footwork of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a bag of shots deeper than Santa Claus’s. He Eurostepped around Harper, pump-faked Castle and absorbed bumps from Devin Vassell. Success, Brunson said, “starts with my confidence, comes with my work ethic.” And a roster full of players who believe in him.
“We’re together out there,” Brunson said. “And whatever happens, we’re just going to fight for each other.”
In 2023, Becky Hammon, the Hall of Fame women’s star who is now the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, went viral for questioning if the Knicks could win with Brunson leading them. Hammon was pilloried for it. But she wasn’t wrong. Allen Iverson won an MVP and led a team to the Finals, but he didn’t win a championship. Isiah Thomas won a pair as the star of the Pistons, but that was a different team in a very different era. What Brunson is doing isn’t unlikely—it’s damn near unprecedented.
But he’s doing it. One game down, three to go, and a city starved for an NBA championship will finally celebrate. The Knicks know the Spurs will hit back, that Wembanyama will be better, that this series is far from over. “We can’t be satisfied,” Brunson said. No issue there. He never is.
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