Jalen Brunson is 2 Knicks wins away from learning a lesson Stephen Curry knows well

NEW YORK – At this time of year, you have better odds of getting Jalen Brunson to smile than stopping him in crunch-time. After the New York Knicks’ practice on Sunday, though, the Captain broke.

Brunson is intimately familiar with the nuances of being underrated. The point guard heard 32 names called before his in the 2018 NBA Draft. That was only the beginning of the league’s underestimation of his abilities. Asked before Game 3 of the Finals what NBA scouts missed about him predraft, his answer was simple.

“Everything,” Brunson told reporters through a grin.

The point guard is a two-time NCAA Champion, three-time All-NBA Team member, three-time NBA All-Star, the league’s 2025 Clutch Player of the Year, and its 2026 Eastern Conference Finals MVP. All of those accomplishments, though, have been in pursuit of something greater: an NBA Championship.

After beating the San Antonio Spurs twice on the road to begin the series, the Knicks are just two wins away from achieving that very goal. And their leader, Brunson, is set to learn a lesson that champions like Stephen Curry know quite well.

Throughout the 2020s, players that lead their team all the way to a title are typically recognized afterwards as the NBA’s greatest talent.

LeBron James left Disney World in 2020 on a throne he knew quite well. Giannis Antetokounmpo was “Robin” before winning 2021 Finals MVP, which made him the best player in the world. And Nikola Jokic couldn’t win, because of his defense, until he was 2023’s Finals MVP.

Curry, however, didn’t get that same recognition after chipping up. Kevin Durant won Finals MVP the first couple of times, meaning the smaller guard had to work twice as hard to win one of his own.

He did so in 2022. But while he was widely recognized as the best player on a title-winning roster, he still wasn’t viewed as being on someone like Jokic’s level.

Jayson Tatum didn’t get that kind of love in 2024, either. But that was the worthwhile result of passing Finals MVP off to Jaylen Brown, because the Dallas Mavericks allowed it.

Curry simply wasn’t tall enough to ride the NBA’s most exclusive ride. It’s much easier to be viewed, perennially, as one of its best players when you’re a 7-footer.

The Golden State Warrior, though, is one of the two best point guards to ever squeak his sneakers on an NBA court. It’s hard to imagine him caring much about his lack of recognition as the league’s best player. He can see the golden answer to that question whenever he’d like, behind glass somewhere in San Francisco.

With two more wins for his Knicks, Brunson can ensure the same kind of hardware makes its way to Madison Square Garden. If he can help make it happen, he’ll likely go on to learn the same lesson that the NBA landscape forced onto Curry.

Much like the other point guard formerly coached by Mike Brown, he likely won’t care at all.

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