Sometimes the best acquisitions in the NBA happen by accident. The Knicks were very intentional about wanting Jalen Brunson before he hit free agency in 2022, even picking up a tampering violation, but it's hard to imagine even they knew what the former second-round pick would become.
Brunson quickly proved he could be the No. 1 option many pundits and fans doubted he would ever be. His excellence as the catalyst of the Knicks' offense led to wins, and those wins led to playoff success for a franchise that waited so long just to win another playoff series.
Born in neighboring New Jersey, Brunson is a bit of a hometown hero for Knicks fans — and he's already entrenched himself among the greatest players in franchise history.
Here's a look at where Brunson ranks among Sporting News' 11 greatest Knicks players of all time.
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Where does Jalen Brunson rank among Knicks legends?
Brunson ranks No. 4 on Sporting News' ranking of the 11 greatest players in Knicks history.
The former Villanova star only joined the Knicks in 2022, but for a franchise that has long chased a return to championship contention, Brunson is the one who finally delivered it for the first time in a quarter-century.
While he doesn't yet have the longevity of most of his counterparts on the Knicks' all time list, he's made a short-term impact similar to that of Bernard King, but with double the playoff success and a cultural revival of the franchise after a decade without a playoff series win.
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Jalen Brunson career milestones and achievements
All-Star appearances
- 2023-24 NBA All-Star
- 2024-25 NBA All-Star
Brunson was selected as an All-Star in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the first two All-Star selections of his career. Some fans believed Brunson was an All-Star snub when he averaged 24 points per game in his first season with the Knicks and didn't make the team, but it didn't take him long to emerge as a regular in the All-Star conversation.
All-NBA selections
- 2023-24 Second-Team All-NBA
- 2024-25 Second-Team All-NBA
Brunson was selected as a member of the All-NBA Second-Team for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. In 2023-24, he received the third-highest vote total among guards, finishing behind first-teamers Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.
Brunson averaged a career-high 28.7 points per game in 2023-24, also posting a new career-best in assists and shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range, and he scored 26 points per game along with 7.3 assists in 2024-25.
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Award Voting
- 2022-23: 12th in MVP voting
- 2023-24: 5th in MVP voting
- 2024-25: Clutch Player of the Year
Brunson finished 12th in MVP voting in 2022-23 and fifth in 2023-24, marking the highest finish by a Knicks player since Carmelo Anthony finished third in 2012-13. Brunson received the NBA's Clutch Player of the Year Award for the 2024-25 season with MVP voting results still pending.
Playoff appearances
- 2022-23: Lost second round
- 2023-24: Lost second round
- 2024-25: Reached conference finals
After reaching the playoffs twice with the Mavericks, Brunson took the Knicks to the playoffs in each of his first three seasons in New York. He led the team to series wins over the Cavaliers in 2023 and 76ers in 2024 before reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025. Brunson averaged north of 32 points per game during the Knicks' 2024 playoff run.
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Jalen Brunson career stats
Brunson has averaged at least 24 points per game in each of his three seasons with the Knicks, posting a career-high 28.7 points per game in 2023-24 and shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range twice in three years.
| Season | Team | Games | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | FG% | 3-pt% |
| 2018-19 | Mavericks | 73 | 9.3 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 46.7% | 34.8% |
| 2019-20 | Mavericks | 57 | 8.2 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 46.6% | 35.8% |
| 2020-21 | Mavericks | 68 | 12.6 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 52.3% | 40.5% |
| 2021-22 | Mavericks | 79 | 16.3 | 3.9 | 4.8 | 0.8 | 50.2% | 37.3% |
| 2022-23 | Knicks | 68 | 24.0 | 3.5 | 6.2 | 0.9 | 49.1% | 41.6% |
| 2023-24 | Knicks | 77 | 28.7 | 3.6 | 6.7 | 0.9 | 47.9% | 40.1% |
| 2024-25 | Knicks | 65 | 26.0 | 2.9 | 7.3 | 0.8 | 48.8% | 38.3% |
| Career | 487 | 18.1 | 3.4 | 6.7 | 0.7 | 48.9% | 38.9% |
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Will Jalen Brunson be in the Hall of Fame?
The Basketball Hall of Fame has earned a reputation for, well, leniency. No Hall of Fame is easy to get into, but the Basketball Hall of Fame doesn't keep the bar too high for great players with gaps on their resume from getting in. Brunson has a long way to go in his career, but he could be on track.
Through his age-28 season, Brunson is a two-time All-Star and has averaged at least 24 points per game in three seasons. He's achieved playoff success in New York, and his discount contract extension sets up the Knicks to potentially sustain that success for a number of years.
Brunson's ticket to the Hall of Fame, aside from winning a championship, could simply be longevity. With the Knicks, he's played at a level that puts players into the Hall of Fame. However, he didn't reach that level until year five and didn't enter the NBA at 19 years old like many stars do. If Brunson can sustain All-Star level production well into his 30s, his path becomes much clearer.
It's worth noting the Basketball Hall of Fame takes a player's entire career into account, rather than just an NBA career. That means Brunson's two championships at Villanova will be a factor in his candidacy and work in his favor.
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Jalen Brunson best highlights
Brunson delivered a signature moment with a go-ahead 3-pointer to propel the Knicks to a first round win over the Pistons in 2025.
After an up-and-down start to the Knicks' series against the Celtics in 2025, Brunson came up huge with 39 points and 12 assists in a crucial Game 4 win, putting New York one win away from the conference finals.
JALEN BRUNSON PUTS ON A CLINIC IN GAME 4!!
— NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2025
🌟 39 PTS
🌟 12 AST
🌟 5 REB
🌟 4 3PM
Knicks lead the series 3-1 and are ONE WIN AWAY from the Eastern Conference Finals. pic.twitter.com/zPn0Q2yFRh
Brunson set a franchise playoff record with 47 points in the Knicks' Game 4 win over the 76ers in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
Brunson led the Knicks to a win in his first playoff series with the franchise, igniting Madison Square Garden with a dagger 3-pointer to give New York a 3-1 series lead over the Cavaliers in 2023.