Jalen Brunson tantalized NBA fans during his incredible run in the 2024 NBA Playoffs with the New York Knicks. Among players in this postseason who played at least seven games, Brunson leads the league in scoring with an average of 32.4 points on 44.4 percent shooting from the field. But that doesn't seem enough for former NBA star Gilbert Arenas to view Brunson as a superstar, partly because of his perceived lack of pizzazz on the part of the Knicks guard.
“They're never going to coin [Jalen Brunson] as a superstar until he starts winning a championship,” Arenas said on Gil's Arena. “You need a personality too.”
Arenas has the knack of stirring the internet with his strong takes, and this probably counts as one of them. In any case, it's hard to deny the entertaining show Brunson put up for the Knicks in the playoffs. Although New York had a miserable end to its postseason journey, as the Knicks lost in seven games to the Indiana Pacers in the second round despite erecting series leads of 2-0 and 3-2, Brunson can't be faulted for his team's downfall. And there is certainly nothing about his personality that can be blamed for the Knicks' playoff fate.
During the Pacers series, Brunson averaged 29.7 points, 6.1 assists, and 2.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 46.1 percent from the field.
If there is one issue to blame for the Knicks' early playoff demise, it has to be the team's health, as New York battled against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Pacers with a banged-up roster. They played without Julius Randle in the entire postseason and without Bojan Bogdanovic in the second round. That's not to mention the injuries to Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart. Brunson even suffered a hand injury in the Knicks' 130-109 Game 7 defeat to Tyrese Haliburton and company.
Not all superstars are created equal and there is no one path to take for a player to be one. For Brunson, he's seemingly just letting his game do the talking.
Brunson, taken by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, signed a four-year deal worth $104 million by the Knicks in 2022.
Social media reacts to Gilbert Arenas' Jalen Brunson take
Of course, Arenas got some heated responses from fans online to his claim on the Knicks star:
“Kwahi literally has no personality…”
“What would arenas know. He was never a superstar 😭”
“No sirrrr, you can be a star and not have a crazy wild personality”
“Bro plenty of ppl have won a chip and have had zero aura or personality. Look at Steph Curry.”
“Why is he so obsessed with popularity contest, that is another type of superstar. Superstar in NBA is man who is consistent 27+ points in regular or playoff.”
“It's clear that Gilbert Arenas knows nothing about Jalen Brunson. He's throwing some short sighted opinions out there and should do his homework. BTW, Gilbert ever win a championship?”
“I only consider someone a superstar if you can lead your team to a championship. Yall let this superstar word go to loosely.”
“dude is taking a page on Skip and SAS book #clickbait”
“Why does Gilbert arenas have a platform, he just says the stupidest s**t and never won anything but wants to tell everyone else what they should do. Can he go away.”
“On today's episode of ridiculous shit u say😅 5th in MVP. Leads playoffs in scoring ATM. Teams win championships. That team had one player left going into the playoffs besides divencenzo maybe🙄”
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