The New York Knicks were considered the favorites in the Eastern Conference entering the season, but their inspired run to the 2026 NBA Finals has still proven a lot of people wrong along the way. Those who believed the Knicks made a mistake by firing head coach Tom Thibodeau and replacing him Mike Brown before the season are eating crow now. Long-time critics of Karl-Anthony Towns’ toughness and defensive ability currently look like fools. Trading five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges won’t seem like the worst deal in NBA history if the Knicks raise a championship banner for the first time since 1973.
There are a long list of skeptics who need to sign an apology form after the Knicks’ dominating run through the East, but maybe it’s no surprise that the top target of “I told you so” blowback from Knicks fans is a woman.
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Back in 2023, WNBA head coach Becky Hammon went on ESPN and said the Knicks didn’t have a “1A dude” to lead them to a championship. When co-panelist Kendrick Perkins brought up Jalen Brunson, she said “He’s too small. If your best player is small, you’re not winning,” while noting Steph Curry is an exception. Watch the old clip here:
Knicks fans are raking Hammon through the coals for this take after the 6’2 Brunson won Eastern Conference Finals MVP. There’s nothing wrong with a victory lap for a fanbase that has been starved for success for decades, but if anything Hammon’s criticism of Brunson shows how much of an outlier he truly is.
Go back through every NBA champion of the last 40 years. How many of them have had their best player be under 6’6? I’m only seeing a couple:
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Isiah Thomas for the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990. Thomas was listed at 6’1.
The only other player you can argue for is Chauncey Billups with the 2004 Pistons, but that team was much more a collection of five very good players without any obvious lead dog. Billups wasn’t an All-Star or an All-NBA selection in 2004, though he was named Finals MVP. The only Piston on the All-Star or All-NBA teams was their big man Ben Wallace.
Becky Hammon was right historically speaking, and it only makes Brunson’s run more impressive
Brunson has been carrying his teams to championships on big stages since he was back at Stevenson High School in north suburban Chicago. Brunson led a non-traditional power to three Final Four appearances and one state championship in Illinois, and then committed to Villanova as the No. 19 overall recruit in the RSCI.
Brunson started 39 of 40 games for Villanova as a true freshman as the team won the 2016 national championship on Kris Jenkins’ iconic buzzer-beater. He was mostly a role player on that team behind future Knicks teammate Josh Hart, but his ball handling and timely scoring made him a key cog in a national champion.
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Villanova earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament the next season as Brunson significantly raised both his scoring and efficiency as a sophomore. The Wildcats lost to Wisconsin in the Sweet 16, setting the stage for Brunson to fully take over the team as a junior.
Brunson was the best player in college basketball in his junior season, and will Villanova to its second national championship in three years. The 2018 Wildcats were an all-time great college team, but it was Brunson was won national player of the year honors while consistently executing in crunch-time to win another ring.
NBA teams still doubted that Brunson’s game could translate to the NBA. Most thought he’d top out as a nice backup point guard. The Dallas Mavericks drafted him at No. 33 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, but on-ball reps were limited after the team also came away with Luka Doncic with the No. 3 overall pick.
Brunson emerged as one of the league’s best sixth men in his third season, and took another step forward as a starter in his fourth season. The Mavs famously balked at locking him up to a long-term contract the previous summer, reportedly refusing to offer $55 million over four years. After a fantastic run in the Western Conference Playoffs for Dallas that season — including a 41-point explosion against the Utah Jazz in the first round — Brunson accepted a $105 million deal to join the Knicks in free agency.
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Plenty of people thought Brunson was a tad overpaid on that contract at the time. It turned out to be one of the biggest bargains in the NBA, and set the stage for the Knicks’ first NBA Finals run since 1999.
Brunson hasn’t proven Hammon wrong yet
“If you’re best player is small, you’re not winning.”
The Knicks won the East this season, but that’s not enough to prove Hammon wrong. Whether New York plays the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Knicks are going to be the underdog in the series either way. The Western Conference Finals have felt like the real NBA Finals up to this point. The Knicks are pushing back on that with a ridiculous +19.8 net-rating in the playoffs so far. After going down 2-1 in the first round against the Hawks, New York has won 11 straight games — and they’re not just winning, they’re blowing teams out in every game.
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I really think the Knicks can win the NBA Finals, especially with the way both OKC and San Antonio are beat up right now. New York is rooting for a long and physical series in the West before a winner is determined. They will be resting the entire time until Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals kicks off on June 3.
The Knicks have four fantastic starters that all feel like All-Star caliber players — even if OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges have never received that honor. Josh Hart is one of the best role players in the NBA as their fifth starter, and Mike Brown has done well to tap into the bench, led by Landry Shamet, Mitchell Robinson, and Miles McBride. As a wise woman once said, though, you need a dude to win it all.
Brunson is showing why he’s been that dude all along.
