An All-Star is born: Brunson has his coming-out Garden party
NEW YORK — Jalen Brunson is usually stoic. Even-keeled. Never too high, never too low. Emotionless without the negative connotation. Stone-faced. He means business.
Thursday night was different, different for one reason. Not because Brunson scored 40 points to lead the Knicks to victory over the Indiana Pacers; he’d done that before.
And not because a rabid Knicks fan base showered him with applause from opening tip to the final buzzer. That’s become a common occurrence at The Garden of Dreams.
Thursday night a dream came true.
It’s the illustrious NBA All-Star appearance that’s evaded the Knicks star all along. Last year Julius Randle represented New York, but coaches left Brunson off the ballot despite a breakout season after leaving the Dallas Mavericks for the Knicks in free agency.
This year Brunson forced the issue. This time it was a foregone conclusion.
Brunson would have been an All-Star starter had the fan vote not been so heavily weighted over the votes from NBA players and NBA media. Brunson beat Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard 48-9 on the media vote and 78-61 on votes from their peers, but Lillard beat Brunson by almost 750,000 fan votes.
Which meant it came down to the coaches, and his former head coach in Dallas, Rick Carlisle. Now coach of the Indiana Pacers,
Carlisle had a front-row seat Thursday night not only to the Madison Square Garden crowd’s reaction to the news Brunson had become an All-Star, but also to the impact he has made in New York.
New York is now within arm’s reach of the Eastern Conference’s second seed. Most NBA general managers had the Knicks pegged for fifth.
“No surprise, zero — that kid is special,” Carlisle said ahead of tipoff Thursday “He was special for us in Dallas. There’s just something about him.
“He has a bulldog competitiveness. He’s heard all the haters and detractors for so long that he just munches that stuff up and spits it out.”
Where’s the whistle?
Brunson is slapping his face and beating his chest, a 6-foot Donkey Kong parading about The Garden.
It was his way of complaining — after taking an uncalled foul on a driving floater — about not getting calls.
It’s something the Knicks have complained to the league office about all season to no avail: The smallest guy on the court attacks the rim time and again and rarely gets the benefit of the whistle.
Only one player in all of basketball has driven to the rim more times than Brunson (820): Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who leads the league with 1,099 drives on the season.
Brunson, however, ranks 14th among drivers in free throws attempted at 110. Gilgeous-Alexander has attempted almost double the number of free throws (212) as the Knicks’ star.
Brunson has attempted the same number of free throws as reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid despite appearing in 12 more games than Embiid this season. Utah Jazz guard Collin Sexton has attempted four more free throws than Brunson despite logging 450 fewer minutes.
Goat on the loose
There’s a goat on the loose at Madison Square Garden.
Brunson called it a “Donte,” but during his postgame media sessions a teammate or two will softly “baaaa” like a goat. It happened twice Friday and has become just as common as missed foul calls and “M-V-P” chants at The Garden.
A goat, of course, is known more in basketball as an acronym, not an animal: greatest of all time.
Brunson may be an individual All-Star, but his teammates wear the honor too. Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo and Ryan Arcidiacono spent the unseen hours in the gym with their leader, their floor general, their All-Star, as college teammates at Villanova.
Brunson captained the Knicks to victory to close January and walk into February despite Randle (dislocated right shoulder) and OG Anunoby (right elbow inflammation) missing each of the last three games.
Brunson led the Knicks to their first 14-win month in 30 years.
“He did exactly what everyone expects him to do, what he’s been doing all season long,” DiVincenzo said. “The dude’s doing everything he possibly can for us to win games.”