New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson has showcased excellent leadership during his tenure with the team. Whenever the team loses, he is the first to take accountability, saying he needs to do more. When they win, he gives all the praise to his teammates.
During the 2024 NBA Playoffs, he did everything to help the Knicks win games. They entered the postseason without Julius Randle in the lineup and exited it with their injury report longer than the list of healthy players.
Mitchell Robinson, Bojan Bogdanovic and OG Anunoby all suffered injuries that sidelined them for games. Josh Hart suffered an abdominal strain in Game 6 vs. the Indiana Pacers. Jalen Brunson hurt his foot in Game 2 and fractured his hand in Game 7.
By the end of the series, Donte DiVincenzo and Isaiah Hartenstein were the only players who were projected rotation players to start the season available and healthy. Injuries kept the Knicks from reaching their ceiling this season.
However, that isn’t something Jalen Brunson wants to hear. During a recent episode of The Roommates Podcast with Hart, Brunson pushed back on the narrative of the team being injured as the reason they were losing games.
“The one thing I hated the most, even though we were playing well.. whenever we lost, everyone was like ‘they’re tired’ or ‘they’re injured’… that pissed me off…We had chances to win that series and didn’t. We had a chance to go up 3-0 and we didn’t…I just hate the fact that sometimes people give us… that’s not the reason we lost…I hate the narrative,” Brunson said. (H/T The Strickland)
Jalen Brunson makes good points. The Knicks had a golden opportunity to go up 3-0 against the Pacers in their Eastern Conference semifinal, but they were unable to close the deal.
It is commendable of Brunson to not use injuries as an excuse for why the team lost. That is one of the many reasons that he and the Knicks should be respected and loved by basketball fans, regardless of the team you root for.
Alas, it is hard to not imagine what if when it comes to this team. Losing as many players as they did was impossible to overcome. No team would have survived being as hampered as the Knicks were, but they never used it as an excuse and fought to the final whistle every game.
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