Brunson already looking ahead after enjoying first All-Star Game
Oft-injured Yank vying for pen spot after never giving up on long road to recovery
Jalen Brunson admitted he will take a day to reflect on his initial All-Star showcase experience on Monday before refocusing his attention on the Knicks’ 27-game stretch run starting Thursday night against the 76ers in Philadelphia.
Brunson soaked up his deserved league-wide accolades by participating in the 3-Point Contest on Saturday night and scoring 12 points in 17 minutes in Sunday’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis, the first of his career.
And now it’s time to get back to work.
“Obviously, there’s chances,” Brunson said Saturday when asked about the Knicks’ postseason opportunity this spring. “But I think for us we can’t focus on that. We have to concentrate on Philly, our first game out of the break, and go from there.
“The best part about the journey is just taking it step by step. And it’s something we can’t look past, at all.”
Still, basketball has always been a family affair for Brunson, and his time in Indy was no different.
The Knicks’ point guard grew up around the game during his father Rick’s nine-year NBA playing career and his subsequent seasons as an assistant coach in the league, including the past two seasons together in New York.
The younger Brunson envisioned himself being in this position one day, and he’s been glad to share the experience with his parents, with mom Sandra also in attendance.
“It’s kind of coming full circle. I remember being around the league as a kid and always dreaming of having opportunities like this. And here I am,” Brunson said. “It’s something I won’t take for granted, for sure.”
The 27-year-old Brunson was one of four first-time All-Stars this season, all on the East squad, along with Paolo Banchero (Magic), Scottie Barnes (Raptors) and Tyrese Maxey (76ers).
Damian Lillard scored 39 points and had 11 made 3-pointers, including two halfcourt jumpers in the second half, to earn the Kobe Bryant Trophy as All-Star MVP. Hometown hero Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers contributed 32 points in the East’s record-setting 211-186 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Karl-Anthony Towns led all scorers with 50 points for the West, and LeBron James registered eight in his league-record 20th All-Star appearance — although he played only 14 minutes due to an ankle issue.
“I can’t really put it into words,” Brunson said of being a first-time All-Star. “It’s something you dream of and something you think about as a kid . ... But to be able to do this and to be able to see the joy it’s brought my family, it’s fun.
“And to see the city, how it’s reacted and how they’ve embraced me, it’s unbelievable.”
Indeed, the former Villanova star is beloved at Madison Square Garden, hearing constant “MVP” chants while leading the Knicks (33-22) back into contender status in the East alongside injured three-time All-Star forward Julius Randle, who did not attend the weekend festivities as he attempts to recuperate from a dislocated right shoulder.
Brunson, originally a secondround pick by the Mavericks in 2018 before signing with the Knicks as a free agent in 2022, ranks eighth in the league in scoring at 27.6 points per game with a career-high 6.5 assists over 52 appearances.
Brunson said in a separate interview with ESPN that he believes the Knicks, who dropped five of six games ahead of the break amid a rash of injuries “can be really good” and “we have the potential to do a lot of really good things” as they start to get healthy.
“I know a lot of Knicks fans want to put us right in the Eastern Conference Finals. We were one step short last year,” Brunson said. “I think for us ... we can’t look forward to the playoffs. We have to focus on every single day, just chipping away and getting better and better.”
TAMPA — It is an exclusive club, and not one that Nick Burdi particularly wanted to be a part of.
Almost 50 pitchers have undergone two Tommy John surgeries. Another 50-plus have had surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome.
But there are only two known examples of a pitcher having two Tommy John surgeries plus thoracic outlet surgery and then coming back to pitch in the majors: Burdi and Shawn Hill.
“It was a lot,” said Hill, who pitched for the Expos, Nationals, Padres and Blue Jays and is entering his ninth year as a Yankees pro scout.
Hill made it back to the big leagues for one game in 2012 after the third surgery. Burdi returned from the terrible trifecta for three games with the Cubs last year, only for an emergency appendectomy to derail the feel-good moment. But now he has a chance to make it back again, opening the Yankees’ eyes early in spring training as a non-roster invitee competing for a bullpen spot.
“It’s one of those things where I feel like I can still do this,” Burdi said Sunday. “I feel like at some point, the tides are gonna turn and the health is gonna be there. To be in this locker room, some of the guys I played with last year, we had a saying, ‘We have a jersey, we got a chance.’ To me, if someone’s gonna give me a chance, I want to make the most of it and run with the opportunity.”
The 31-year-old right-hander arrived at camp with a lower arm slot that he first started messing around with late last year before going all in on it in the offseason. It helped relieve some of the stress on his oft-surgically repaired arm, all without losing the sharpness or shapes of his pitches — in fact, he said, that has all been better, too.
Burdi threw live batting practice Saturday and flashed a midto-upper 90s fastball along with a sweeper slider and changeup from the lower slot.
“That was real,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “That was impressive.”
“It’s kind of like a low-riding four-seam [fastball] with no armside run,” said Ben Rortvedt, who spent time with Burdi in the Twins organization and faced him in Saturday’s live session. “The off-speed’s firm and sharp too. … The stuff is really good.”
Burdi’s talent has never been in question. The Twins selected the former flame-throwing Louisville closer in the second round of the 2014 draft. He was viewed as an arm that could quickly rise through the minors, but injuries slowed him down.
The first Tommy John surgery came in May of 2017. Later that year, he landed with the Pirates via the Rule 5 draft and continued his rehab with them before making his MLB debut in September of 2018.
“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve come around,” said Clay Holmes, who overlapped with Burdi in Pittsburgh.
Burdi made the Pirates’ Opening Day roster in 2019 but in an April 22 game, he crumpled to the ground in pain and tears with a right biceps strain that eventually led to surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) that June. He also had another surgery in September to address an issue in his forearm.
After appearing in three games in 2020, Burdi underwent the second Tommy John surgery that October, and then had his ulnar nerve transposed in 2022.
“That was the hardest because that was the first one where I had a lot of setbacks,” Burdi said. “I had a hematoma, I had an infection in there. Every time I threw, it just hurt. The summer of 2022, it [was] like, ‘Maybe I should start looking for a job or seeing if there’s something else that intrigues me, because I don’t know if this is going to happen.’
“But I do remember my wife being like, ‘Just keep going.’ And we did and now we’re here.”
Hill said he also had a stubborn mentality that kept him coming back from all the surgeries. He went through a wild-goose chase (including the second Tommy John) before his TOS was diagnosed. All the surgeries took a toll over time, though he made it back to the majors later that year for one final game with the Blue Jays.
“I remember the trainer when I showed up there again … and he’s just shaking his head, like, ‘I don’t know how you’re still going,’” said Hill, whose velocity disappeared the following year. “I was like, ‘I don’t know anything else. This is what I do.’ It was gratifying, but it was also frustrating because yes, I had made it back, but I also knew I was kind of a shadow of who I could have been and was.”
Burdi is hoping to write a different ending to his story. He wants to pitch for six to eight more years, and sees the Yankees — with their history of developing bullpen arms out of nowhere — as a good place to take his next step.
“Especially being a dad, it’s one of those things where down the line, I want [my daughter and son] to be able to see I didn’t give up,” Burdi said. “I kept going, pushing myself. So if they ever have a dream one day, that they’ll go follow it and have that passion to do it.”