How The 33rd Pick Saved The New York Knicks

How The 33rd Pick Saved The New York Knicks

finish this sentence B Jaylen Brunson is jayen Brunson is one of the best point guards in the NBA today but things weren’t always that way before Jaylen transformed into an All-Star and saved the Knicks from years of mediocrity he was just an undersized second round pick with an uncertain future however today his talent and stardom is undeniable this game is very special to me this game means everything to me I put my entire life into this game from coming off the Maverick’s bench to becoming the biggest star in the Big Apple this is the story of Jaylen Brunson and brunson’s story actually starts just south of the bright lights of New York City in Cherry Hill New Jersey where Jaylen grew up his father Rick was a professional basketball player spending time in the NBL and CBA in addition to having a lengthy 9-year NBA career where he played for multiple teams because of this jayen basically grew up in NBA locker rooms you grew up around the NBA right your your your dad Rick he actually played for the Knicks he did yeah he played for the uh 99 team when went to final so he brought them a little good luck yeah but uh yeah I just remember just being a kid and uh having Nick stuff around we still have old Nicks blankets for when he played so um it’s pretty special while his father was with the Knicks he brought Jaylen around so much that the ushers and attendants knew him by name and when his mother sandre noticed that his only friends were Nicks Stars Larry Johnson and Marcus cambi she enrolled him in prek to socialize with kids his own age I just remember like when I used to meet like players like that like it just it became normal when I used to bring friends around like oh like you met this is this person that person like yeah I met him but right I see him all the time but after growing up around the game like that Jaylen only wanted to do one thing with his life he wanted to play ball just like his dad the love of basketball was evident to me honestly since the day I was born I was always surrounded by it then in 2006 when Jaylen was 10 years old things changed he tagged along with his dad to a preseason practice with the 76ers and when they arrived Rick was informed that he had been cut Rick dreaded telling his basketball obsessed on the news and even more so because he knew he was going to retire rather than seeking another non-guaranteed journeyman contract but before leaving the 76ers locker room Rick conveyed a message to his son if you really want this man you’ve got to work like nobody’s business a message that really stuck with Jaylen and though his father’s playing career ended his coaching career began but it came with struggle for the Brunson family they would have to move seven times in the coming years for various coaching jobs but throughout the turmoil one thing was constant for Jaylen basketball in the seventh grade he quit all other sports to focus strictly on hoops and this is also when his dad became his one-on-one trainer don’t slow up no no no full speed here jump take you into your shot go they would train rigorously three times a week for the rest of his time in middle school before progressing to daily sessions in high school I think I learned how to work when I got to League I didn’t really understand how how hard I had to work before so I instill that in jayen you know at at a young age to kind of eliminate the fact of uh just trying to make it every year I think he put himself in a great position High School is also when Jaylen finally had a consistent living situation as his family settled down in Lincolnshire Illinois a suburb of Chicago and it didn’t take long for all the work jayen and his father had put in to pay off on the court while playing at Stevenson High School jayen became a school legend he earned an all Lake County honorable mention as a freshman but a sophomore year is when he really started to shine after starting the year with a 10 and4 record Jaylen LED Ste son on a 19-game winning streak culminating in a state championship game Clash against the three-time defending champs Simeon Career Academy led by Jabari Parker and Kendrick nun and Brunson fell short despite his best efforts the game ended 5840 in simeon’s favor and Jaylen was held to just one point in the entire second half Brunson finished the season averaging 21.5 points per game and was named All State second team being the only sophomore with an all state nomination the next year Stevenson returned to the playoffs this time with an unbelievable 32-1 record they played against the Jalil okaf for Le Whitney Young High School in the semi-finals and Jaylen scored a record setting 56 points in the game but Stevenson lost once again 7568 that shouldn’t take away from brunson’s performance That season though he averaged 26.1 points 5.4 rebounds 4.7 assists and 2.9 steals he also won Gatorade player of the year for the state of Illinois and was the only Junior to make the All State first team team at this point Jaylen started getting the national recognition he deserved he was a five-star recruit and the number one ranked player in the state of Illinois he received scholarship offers from over eight different colleges but prior to his senior season announced that he would be committing to Villanova during his last year of high school ball Brunson continued to impress he set the career record for scoring in Lake County but more importantly he led Stevenson to yet another place in the state championship game and this time they won Brunson dropped 30 with a Game ending 57 to 40 it was just so emotional that me I can’t even explain it I mean it was one of the best times of my life hugging my parents after the game there’s so many rare moments me and my dad have a moment like that just really emotional after falling short of two state championships Jaylen finally reached the Mountaintop he was named Illinois Mr basketball and repeated as Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year and as that chapter closed brunson’s Focus shifted to college ball and as the top recruit the pressure was on for him to perform right away and perform he did with Jaylen as the starter the wild cats quickly climbed to the top of the college rankings finishing the season as the sixth ranked team in the country when the NCAA tournament rolled around Brunson was ready to prove himself on a national stage Villanova steamrolled the competition before meeting the number one overall team Kansas in the Elite 8 the game was one for the ages both teams trading blows down the stretch but the wild cats held on to win on the back of two clutch free throws by Bronson that iced the game Villanova went on to dism mantle Oklahoma in the final four leading to a national championship matchup with North Carolina and what was one of the greatest college basketball games in history the wild cats once again got it done by way of a buzzer beating three from Chris jenkinses it to Jenkins for the championship the national champion and while Brunson mainly played a complimentary role he was still a starter on a national championship winning team as a freshman but just like in high school his sophomore year he exploded Villanova was even better finishing the season as the number one ranked team in the country and this time around Jaylen wasn’t a role player he was the second leading scorer on the team averaging 14.7 points and 4.1 assists he was also a unanimous selection for the Big East first team while the Wildcats would get bounced in the second round of the NCAA tournament that was just a setup for an insane Redemption story for brunson’s junior season probably the biggest obstacle for him was not being the go-to guy in his third year he was was the go-to guy and then the obstacle was how do I make sure I’m the go-to guy and I keep everybody else involved and it was in his Junior season that he established himself as the best player in college basketball Villanova was once again dominant finishing the season ranked second overall and Brunson led the team with 18.9 points and 4.6 assists per game but when tournament time came around the Wildcats took their game to a whole another level they won every Tournament game by double digits on their way to another NCAA title I I really cannot put this in the words at all I just love my brothers I love my team I love NOA Nation it’s just this is spectacular jaylen’s been questioned at each level he was a dominant high school player and a lot of people said well he’s not going to be able to dominate like that in college he’ll be a good college player and then he goes on to be National Player of the Year and Brunson won just about every college award in basketball completing one of the greatest college careers we’ve ever seen with nothing more to prove f the season Jaylen declared for the NBA draft and with a rese as impressive as his you would expect him to be a lottery pick but we all know that’s not what happened the 2018 NBA draft was absolutely stacked at the top you had players like DeAndre Aton Luca donic and Trey young but there were also absolute gems scattered throughout the draft like sgaa at pick 11 Michael Porter Jr at pick 14 and anony Simons at pick 24 but easily the biggest steal of the entire draft came at the third pick of the second round where the Dallas Mavericks selected Jaylen Brunson from filinova University completing one of the best drafts in recent memory for an individual team as they landed Luca donic and Jaylen Brunson in one Fell Swoop it’s still hard to believe that Jaylen fell is far down the draft order as he did he had NBA pedigree and an unbelievable record of winning at every level how is he so overlooked well many experts thought that jaylen’s game wouldn’t translate well to the league by NBA standards he was undersized and unathletic expected to be a liability on defense and nothing more than a career backup but per usual the experts were wrong brunson’s first season in the NBA was pretty uneventful he was buried on the depth chart behind two lottery picks in Dennis Smith Jr and Luca donic so that was to be expected but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t taking advantage of every opportunity he got like in February when he started in place of LCA and put up 22 points a career high at the time which he went on to beat in March when he dropped 34 four points on the Spurs by the end of the season he had established himself as the Mavs Sixth Man and proved that they could lean on him when Luca needed a break but then Jaylen faced the first major setback of his career a little over halfway through his second season he had to get shoulder surgery to repair a torn laum and would miss the remainder of the Year all the groundwork he had put in was now in Jeopardy it’s impossible to know how a player will recover from a major injury and a shoulder injury can be devastating for basketball players but Brunson was used to adversity and he came back from injury better than ever shoulders 100% I’m ready to go play is simple he set career highs across the board in his third year averaging 12.6 points 3.5 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game and finished fourth in the sixth band of the Year voting the Mavs also finished fifth in the west that year which meant Brunson would get his first taste of the playoffs and to say his first playoff series went poorly would be an understatement the Mavericks lost in seven games and brunson’s numbers went down in every category from the regular season but his most glaring in statistic was his abysmal plus minus of minus 56 after that the Mavs decided not to offer Brunson a contract extension they did however pick up the team option that brought him back to Dallas for a fourth year and the Mavs would live to regret not extending jayen after that third season when his value was low because in year four he became a star Brunson used that bad playoff series as motivation and came back a manp possessed he was finally named a starter to start the 2021-22 season and that quickly paid off for Dallas there was a period where Luca went out and I started to start and um I was playing really well I think I was averaging like 20 and like six maybe whatever Jaylen averaged 16.3 points 4.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds during the regular season and the Mavs finished fourth in the west and while the regular season numbers were nice Brunson was after redemption in the playoffs and he got it in Spades in the first round against the Jazz Luca missed the first three games to injury and Brunson carried the MS they lost game one but in game two Jaylen exploded for 41 points five assists and eight rebounds in a 110 104 win the second game I think he had like 45 something like that was really impressed I was just on a patch watching W this guy’s amazing he Then followed that up with a 31.6 assist performance in game three for another win so without Luca Dallas was leading the series 2-1 when people counting us out because luuka was out it kind of like lit a fire in all of us when you see stuff like that like the chatter it’s impossible not to see and then guys we sent it to each other we’re like yo like people don’t think we were were capable and obviously once Luka came back that it was all said and done donic returned for game four and the Mavs went on to win the series in six games but brunson’s numbers were Beyond impressive averaging 27.8 points 4.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds for the series then in the second round against the Suns he was fantastic again Dallas won the series in seven games and Jaylen averaged 18.7 points just a year after being bound in the first round and perhaps the worst stretch of basketball in brunson’s career he helped lead the Mavs to the Conference Finals and while they would go on to lose against the eventual Champion Golden State Warriors Brunson proved to the world that he was for real and even more importantly his price went up it was clear that Jaylen was a star and for the Mavericks it was too late I really did want to stay in Dallas before my fourth season in Dallas my last season in Dallas we try to extend um our contract whatever we can get the most we can get was like four years 55 million and so obviously wanted to do that I wanted to stay there I thought I thought I would be there for a long time and I like my role there trade deadline comes I’m not getting extended I’m probably going to get traded the way I’ve been playing like this just like playing well right I’m playing somewhat decent after years of being on the team Dallas’s front office failed to evaluate his value and they couldn’t afford him anymore plenty of teams were willing to pay for brunson’s services but one team quickly emerged as the obvious destination for him the New York Knicks had recently hired his father Rick as an assistant coach and the team president Leon Rose was his former agent so after nailing out the details on a 4-year 104 million contract Jaylen was headed back to the locker room he grew up in as a kid he was a New York Nick a move that proved to be the best the Knicks made in a very long time this is you as a kid walk around the Garden in a Knicks jersey and now you’re playing for the next and kids come to the Garden wearing your jersey that’s cool it’s really cool know it says a lot about when a player is just comfortable right my dad’s an assistant coach my two best friends play with me it says a lot too about you have your system your support group around you you know it allows you to be you and and there’s Comfort there Brunson was a breath of fresh air for a franchise that had been struggling prior to his arrival the Knicks had made one playoff appearance in the last 9 years and in that series they were embarrassed by the Atlanta Hawks losing in five games but with brunson’s arrival everything changed is to n’s Bulldog mentality was perfect for head coach Tom tibo’s system when I first remember meeting tibs was in eighth grade when he was in uh in Chicago my dad’s on saff there and so he’s the same coach he’s the same motivator as he is now and so actually be able to play for him ESP special it’s coming full circle and so nothing’s really surprising me but I’m just I’m up for a challenge and as the primary ball handler and focal point of the offense he elevated the players around him like Julius Randall but he just made the game a million times easier easier for me a million times like I didn’t have to work to every single time Down The Possession and P you know how that is bro like but JB just made he made the game so much easier in his first year at the Knicks Brunson set career highs with 24 points and 6.2 assists per game but even more importantly the Knicks were playing winning basketball again after finishing 11th in the East the previous year they jumped to Fifth and their offensive rating improved from 22nd in the league to third it was night and day and in the playoff that year Brunson was special he led the Knicks to their first playoff series win since 2012 as they beat the Cavs in the first round 4-1 and Jaylen LED all scorers with 24 points per game they went on to lose in the conference semi-finals against the Miami Heat but it was no fault of Jaylen Brunson he put together several impressive performances including an insane 41 points in their game six elimination game he again LED this series in scoring averaging 31 points per game despite the loss basketball ball was being restored in New York and it was all thanks to an undersized unathletic second round pick I’m a guy who works hard would do anything it takes to win sacrifice a lot I don’t want to come here and expect everything from everyone here on this team I want to earn it I want to earn that respect I want them to see that this is what I’m about X’s and O’s all that stuff yeah that’s basketball but like the things that can help us on the court to create better chemistry uh it’s going to help us but when the 2324 season rolled around Brunson and the Knicks had to prove that this wasn’t just a one-off they they not only had to back up the previous year they needed to build on it so what did Brunson do he did what he always does and answered the call he set career highs yet again averaging 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game and he did it by way of some incredible performances like when he went for a career-high 61 points against the Spurs or when he tied the NBA record for the most threes in a game without a Miss with nine against the Suns it’s good a 50-point night for jayen Brunson and he’s nine of nine from three he also became the fourth Nick ever to score 40 or more points in back-to-back games and tied the Knicks 30-point game record for a single season with 36 on top of that for the first time in his career he was named an All-Star and stood in Madison Square Garden with thousands of fans chanting [Applause] MVP I mean I got I got nothing to say I got nothing to say fully realizing what he meant to the city and that the work he put in was all worth it the season was historic for Brunson but it was also huge for the Knicks who finished second in the East and for all their accomplishments what were they given a brutal first round playoff matchup with the 76ers who just got Joel embiid back from injury not to mention Julius Randall had been injured during the regular season and ruled out for the year but despite many thinking the Knicks would lose the series they proved why they were the second seed in the East and well they also had Jaylen Brunson at the start of the series Brunson played well scoring 22 24 and 39 points respectively but when it came time to close out the Sixers in six games he went nuclear doing something we haven’t seen in the playoffs since Michael Jordan for the last three games of the series Brunson had three consecutive 40 plus point games reaching a level of play nobody could have seen coming but unfortunately for the Knicks what they couldn’t see coming was the slew of injuries that hit them during the their second round Series against the Pacers in game one the Knicks pulled out a win thanks to another 40 plus point game from Jaylen Brunson he became just the fourth player ever to have four straight 40 plus Point playoff games but New York lost Center Mitchell Robinson early in the game to a fractured ankle then in game two the Knicks once again found a way to win but OG and anobi picked up a hamstring injury that kept him out for pretty much the remainder of the series with the injuries piling up the Pacers took the next two games at home but Brunson stepped up to stop the bleeding with a 44-point game five this however was the Knick’s Final Stand they lost the next two games with Josh Hart getting hurt in game six and then Brunson himself fracturing his left hand in game seven but that shouldn’t take away from the season he had the amount of times I hear uh from people or coaches or whatever like you’re playing great you’re playing great like don’t worry about it I’m just my head I’m like yeah maybe but I know I can be playing better tired is for the weak manly strong go Jaylen Brunson has almost single-handedly revived one of the biggest franchises in the NBA shining in a city where the lights have proved to be too bright for so many others and if history tells us anything he’ll be back for more next year and he’ll be better than ever thanks for watching Non-Stop and hey if you like this video then we’ve got another one for you right here see you next time

This is the story of Jalen Brunson, and how he went from a 2nd round draft to NBA superstar.

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