Among those who enjoyed New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson's SNL episode is former NBA star Blake Griffin, who would know about comedies like Saturday Night Live.
Griffin spoke to The Athletic about Brunson's episode. He just launched his sports-comedy series The Stepback, making him an appropriate critic of the Knicks captain's episode.
The former NBA player said that Brunson “did a good job” and his episode was “well-deserved.” Given his responsibilities as a player, especially how close SNL was taped before the Knicks' training camp, it's a “hard” task to host the show.
“It’s hard, man. It’s hard for an athlete,” Griffin told The Athletic. “And by the way, he’s gearing up for training camp. So, he’s not going and running his monologue at, like, a comedy club or trying to work out the kinks.”
He loved seeing Brunson bring the rest of the Knicks' starting five—Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges—on stage during his opening monologue.
“I thought it was really, really cool that he had his guys up there: OG, KAT, Josh, Mikal,” said Griffin. “That’s really, really special. And also, it speaks to, like, what kind of leader he is, you know? He earned that moment. He’s the MVP, the Finals MVP, led the team. Captain. He could have just gone up there and done it himself. He brought guys along with him, and that is what he did on the court, too.”
Does Blake Griffin want to follow in Knicks star Jalen Brunson's footsteps and host SNL?
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Griffin would love to become one of the few NBA players to host SNL. Maybe The Stepback could launch his foray into sketch comedy.
“I’ve been a fan of SNL for so long,” Griffin said of the iconic NBC sketch comedy show. “That’s been on the dreamboard for I don’t know how long.”