Exclusive | Jalen Brunson tells The Post why Knicks championship won’t define him: ‘A lot more that I can prove’
He’s the same Jalen Brunson as before.
Not even leading the Knicks to an NBA championship, and winning a Finals MVP along the way, will change how Brunson looks at himself — and how he wants others to view him.
“Hasn’t,” Brunson exclusively told The Post’s “New York Got Game” show while speaking at his “Jalen Brunson Charity Golf Classic” benefiting his “Second Round Foundation” at Westchester Country Club on Monday. “That wouldn’t do it.
“It will be the same. It’s something that I get to walk around with and think about when I’m — when I need to give myself a little confidence, or whatever, just in certain situations. But my approach and everything has to be the same. Just because I’ve reached the mountaintop of winning an NBA championship doesn’t mean that it’s over with. I feel like there’s still a lot more to do and a lot more that I can prove. It’s 100 percent always going to be in the mind, I’m just not going to let it define me.”
Four years after signing with the Knicks, Brunson has emerged as one of New York’s biggest legends — across all sports — this generation after powering the team to its first title since 1973.
And the Knicks are returning pretty much their entire core from last year, with the only significant departure being Mitchell Robinson. It only makes Brunson hungrier for even more success.
“Jalen is the ultimate worker,” Brunson’s mother, Sandra, told The Post. “I felt like, while in the moment we celebrated, moments after, days after, but I could see from my perspective that he was like, ‘OK, next. What’s next?’ Because he’s not satisfied. Reaching the pinnacle or the mountaintop is great. But his career is still, he’s still thriving in his career and it’s still on an uptick. I think that he’s like, ‘What’s the next challenge? What’s the next hurdle?’ I saw that in him.
“Everyone sees him as a very focused and disciplined individual while he’s on the court. Off the court, he allowed himself the time to absorb the love and the attention and the appreciation that was felt from the championship, but I think in the back of his mind, he’s just like, ‘OK, what’s the next thing?’ I think he’s the type of person that when his career is over, he’ll look back and appreciate everything that he and his teammates have accomplished, but while in the moment, I think he’s already thinking, ‘How can I get better?’ ”
That doesn’t mean Brunson didn’t appreciate the moment and the accomplishment, though. Now a few months removed, he reflected on what it felt like to win a championship.
Was it like what he thought it would be?
“Yes and no,” Brunson said. “I kind of understood what the feeling would be like. In the moment of it happening, I understood what that would be like — I knew I’d be emotional. Just everything after that is what I wasn’t expecting.”
This summer’s been “a lot.”
“Obviously there’s a lot of obligations you have to do,” Brunson said. “A lot of things that have already [been] structured into your calendar, a lot of things added in. So there have been a lot of things like that, but still been trying to make time for my family, still make time for my main job.”
Even with all of that, however, Brunson is steadfast that “nothing’s really changed for me.”
Knicks fans can expect to see the same Brunson when next season rolls around. The only difference is that there are new goals to chase.