Jalen enjoys break instead of fretting about ASG snub
Jalen Brunson didn’t sit around for the past week on the NBA version of standby, waiting for a lastminute invitation to All-Star weekend that was never extended.
The Knicks’ $104 million point guard instead rested up for the team’s final 22-game playoff push after he was snubbed multiple times for what would have been the first All-Star appearance of his career.
“Not really. I was going on break as if I was going on break,” Brunson said after practice Wednesday when asked if he expected to be named as a last-minute replacement. “I wasn’t really focused on anything else besides those first couple of days, relaxing. That’s really it.
“If I had a call, obviously, I’m not turning that down. It’s an honor. But at the same time I wasn’t getting my hopes up.”
Averaging 23.9 points and 6.2 assists in 56 games this season, Brunson deserved to be in Salt
Lake City with Knicks teammate Julius Randle, who played in the league’s midseason showcase for the second time in three years. But Brunson was bypassed when the Eastern Conference reserves were named, then again when several injury replacements were chosen. Another late opening could have been created by Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo,
who played just the first 20 seconds of the game due to a wrist ailment. Brunson said he “did not watch” the game Sunday, though he earlier had tuned in to see teammates Quentin Grimes (Rising Stars Challenge), Jericho Sims (Slam Dunk Contest) and Randle (3-Point Contest) participate over the previous two nights.
“I went to dinner. I did not watch the All-Star Game,” Brunson said. “So had a great weekend.”
Brunson added he’s “not really” concerned that he or the team will lose any momentum following the layoff between the sixth-place Knicks’ final game before the break — a win in Atlanta last Wednesday — and their visit Friday to Washington.
“That’s a good question. For me, I just focus on what I can control. I rested, worked out for two days and came back here ready to go,” Brunson said. “Do everything the same, all my routines the same, all that stuff. I just know that if I just have a consistency with everything, I’ll be good.
“There’s pros and cons to it. The pros, you get a nice little break, the rest. Get to free your mind a little bit. The cons of it are now that you’ve had that break, you have [22] games left. Do people start counting down those days? I don’t want to be one of those people who count down the days for the season to be over. I want to sprint through this finish line to see what we can do with this team.”