Making the ‘Nova Knicks: How Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges brought championship pedigree from NCAA to NBA Finals originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Knicks‘ path to the NBA Finals seemingly began in 2021, when they turned a season with zero expectations into the return of playoff basketball and a revival of Madison Square Garden.
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The actual start of the Knicks’ dream run to the Finals came all the way back in the mid-2010s, when Jay Wright and his staff pieced together a roster that would bring championship glory not once, but twice, to the Catholic university west of Philadelphia.
The foundation was set long before Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges or even Josh Hart arrived at Villanova. The Wildcats reached the Elite Eight in 2006 and Final Four in 2009, setting a new standard after the program teetered in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Ryan Arcidiacono, Daniel Ochefu, Phil Booth and, of course, Kris Jenkins, all played pivotal roles on the Villanova team that climbed the mountaintop and won a national championship in 2016, but it’s likely no coincidence that the program got over the hump just as the same players who are now knocking on the door of an NBA championship were settling into their roles with the Wildcats.
“There was a unique bond. They came in and turned it,” former Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune, then an assistant, told Sporting News. “They truly liked each other. These guys were really close. These guys had real relationships.”
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Those relationships weren’t made overnight. Hart joked Tuesday that he “hated” Brunson and Bridges when they joined the program, telling reporters that he thought Brunson “was one of those annoying 5-star recruits.” As it turned out, Bridges and Hart would be essential to one another as they developed into stars.
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How Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart fueled each other
Bridges, a redshirt freshman on Villanova’s 2016 championship team, was on the court primarily for his defense and high motor as he bulk up his thin frame.
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Brunson and Bridges worked well together from day one as they settled into different roles. It was Hart, already a junior by the time Bridges debuted, who helped mold Bridges into the player he would become.
Hart and Bridges were “put against each other every day” in practice, Neptune said. While they butted heads at times, they brought out the best in each other. Bridges’ tenacity fueled Hart, and Hart’s competitiveness forced Bridges to step up his game.
“Josh Hart absolutely hated to lose. That just made Mikal better,” Howard said.
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Without Bridges to push him, though, Hart might not be where he is today.
“Josh was not a practice player. Josh was a dude that we sort of had to incentivize him to practice hard,” Howard said. “But as soon as we started competing, nobody was a fiercer competitor than Josh.”
It was in those head-to-head practice battles that Villanova’s staff started to realize what they had in Bridges.
“Josh would get the better of him, but Mikal was kind of right there with him when you thought Hart would be dominating him,” Neptune said. By his junior season, Bridges morphed from a lanky defensive specialist into a do-it-all player who put himself on NBA radars as a potential lottery pick.
Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges
Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
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Jalen Brunson’s quick adjustment
Brunson proved from day one that he was not a typical blue-chip freshman who expects to be handed a featured role. Even as he settled into a more refined role than he was accustomed to on an experienced squad, Brunson’s no-nonsense mentality was already apparent at 19.
“He’s always had a very mature, business-like approach to literally everything he does,” Neptune said.
When Brunson arrived at Villanova, he set a goal of graduating in three years. Despite the NBA becoming a legitimate possibility along the way, he achieved that goal.
“There was one time I saw him in the airport and he was walking through the airport reading a book,” as he was finishing his degree, Neptune said with a laugh.
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On the court, it didn’t take long for Brunson to prove why he was a 5-star recruit.
Assistant coach Ashley Howard, who was on the staff for the 2016 and 2018 title runs before returning to the program in 2023, said Villanova knew before he even arrived on campus that Brunson was going to be a sensation despite his size.
“He was always a big game performer. Always,” Howard told Sporting News. “People really don’t appreciate him because he’s not doing 360 dunks and he’s not 6-6. He went head to head with Jayson Tatum and gave him 48 points [in high school].
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When Brunson won MVP of the NIT Season Tip-Off less than a month into his freshman season, he only validated the coaching staff’s confidence.
“He had that DNA when he got to Villanova,” Howard said. “We developed Jalen, he got better, but he could’ve went anywhere in the country and maybe would’ve been first team All-American as a freshman.”
Instead, Brunson cut his teeth in a complementary role next to Villanova’s veterans. He started nearly every game on the road to a national championship, but he was the Wildcats’ fifth-leading scorer and had no choice but to learn team basketball before emerging as the national player of the year by his final collegiate season.
Jalen Brunson, Villanova
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‘Those guys just weren’t going to be denied’
Like any championship program, Villanova preached the team over the individual — but, just as it does in New York, it all led back to Brunson for the Wildcats.
“I think Jalen was the last piece that got us over the hump,” Neptune said. “That year that Jalen came, the vibe in practice was straight business. Jalen naturally kind of embodies that.”
After a disappointing exit on the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend in 2017 and the graduations of Hart and Jenkins, someone had to step up and be a leader in 2018. There was no doubt Brunson would take on that role.
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“Jalen was the leader,” Howard said. “Mikal was more of a silent leader.”
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On the court, Brunson and Bridges both made leaps, earning All-American honors for the first time. Donte DiVincenzo, who would play alongside Brunson for one season with the Knicks, rocketed from a role player into one of the country’s most dangerous shooters and earned Most Outstanding Player honors at the Final Four after Villanova rolled to its second championship in three years.
“They all knew why we lost, they felt that sting,” Howard said. “Those guys just weren’t going to be denied.”
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The Knicks have played like a team that won’t be denied. They enter the NBA Finals having won 11 consecutive games, with their last loss coming all the way back on April 23. The majority of those games haven’t even been competitive; New York won seven of them by at least 15 points.
The Knicks are an underdog against the Spurs in the franchise’s first trip to the Finals in 27 years, but the odds might not fully grasp the power of friendship. If the Knicks win their first championship in 53 years, it will have been possible because of the bond forged in the Big East at Villanova.
