As Jalen Brunson leads the Knicks to the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years, fans are also getting a close look at the personal love story behind the team captain—shared with his wife, Dr. Alison Marks Brunson, and their daughter Jordyn James Brunson, b
When Jalen Brunson walks into the spotlight, it’s the game that puts him there. But lately, the cameras have found something else to hold onto too: the life behind the jersey.
At a press conference during the Knicks’ playoff run. Brunson tried to answer a question while his little daughter. Jordyn James Brunson. interrupted him by screaming “dada!” The video has been circling widely this past week—less about basketball strategy than about the way a toddler can turn tension into tenderness. Jordyn has often been seen at Madison Square Garden. sitting near famous fans like Ben Stiller and. after games. on her father’s shoulders.
Brunson is the Knicks point guard and team captain, and this postseason he’s helped New York reach the NBA finals for the first time in 27 years. But his relationship story—built well before the playoffs—has become part of the same public moment.
He and Alison Marks met long before the Knicks became a daily headline. The couple attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School in the suburbs of Chicago. They met when Jalen was 15 and Alison was 16, and started dating while still in high school—going together to homecoming and senior prom.
They stayed together through the usual pressure points, including long-distance. Alison stayed in Illinois for her undergraduate studies, while Jalen went to Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Then. seven years after their proposal began in the place they both remembered so well. Jalen got down on one knee in their old high school gymnasium under a floral arc and proposed to Alison. She said yes.
Support, in this story, isn’t a slogan—it’s something Jalen described plainly in a wedding video. “She’s sacrificed a lot, without really knowing what’s in it for her. She was committed. She wanted the best for myself. and sometimes it felt like she wanted the best for me before her… she’s pushed me to be better. ” he said in that video.
They married in Chicago in July of 2023, at the Ritz-Carlton. Alison was walked down the aisle by her mother. Both of her sisters and Jalen’s sister spoke about how happy they were to welcome a new sibling into the family. The couple signed a ketubah—described as the traditional Jewish marriage contract—married under a floral chuppah. and danced the hora at the reception.
Their daughter later carried forward the meaning of that marriage. Jordyn was born in the summer of 2024, on July 31, 2024—just days after the couple’s third wedding anniversary. In line with Ashkenazi Jewish naming tradition, she was given the middle name James in honor of Alison’s late father.
That father, James Marks, died in 2010 at age 49. He is buried at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and the grief has stayed present in Alison’s life in ways that extend beyond family memory. She posted a picture last year of herself and her daughter visiting his grave.
In 2020, Marks shared publicly that her father had lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2010. Ten years later. she said she officially completed a marathon with Project Purple. an organization that provides critical research funding and financial support to families—something her own family benefited from in 2010. Since then. she has run many races for Project Purple. raising money for pancreatic cancer research and boosting awareness for the cause on social media.
Jordyn’s name is only one way that history sits in the present. Alison’s own career is another. In 2021, she graduated as a doctor of physical therapy from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She runs her own boutique physiotherapy business out of Westchester, New York.
All of it—high school beginnings in the Chicago suburbs. long-distance college years. a proposal in a familiar gym. a July 2023 wedding at the Ritz-Carlton. and the birth of Jordyn on July 31. 2024—has followed Brunson into his latest public phase. The Knicks’ trip to the NBA Finals may be a sports milestone measured in years. but for the people at the center of it. the story feels measured in dates. family ties. and the names they chose to keep close.
Jalen Brunson Alison Marks Brunson Knicks NBA Finals Jordyn James Brunson ketubah chuppah Project Purple pancreatic cancer Madison Square Garden
They’re in the Finals and now it’s all crying toddlers? lol
I saw the clip where the little kid yelled “dada!” and it honestly made me tear up more than the basketball part. Like good for him, but can we get to the actual game stats too?
Wait isn’t this the Jewish family thing like people keep saying? I’m not mad just confused how that turns into Knicks fans cheering. Toddler screaming “dada” doesn’t really change anything on the court.
Ok so he met his wife in Chicago suburbs in high school… cute I guess. But I keep seeing this online like it’s some “secret love story” that helped the team get to the Finals, which seems kinda made up? Also Ben Stiller being around doesn’t mean anything, that guy shows up everywhere. Congrats to them though, wish my husband would carry me like that after games.