Jalen Brunson has been excellent for the New York Knicks in 2022-23, and after being truly snubbed from the 2023 NBA All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City, he shared a hilarious revelation in an interview with Bleacher Report on Thursday.
“I think my parents might have been more mad than me,” Brunson told Chris Haynes.
Brunson probably should have been at least a reserve in February's festivities. Still, the 26-year-old has had a career year with the Knicks, helping the team to a respectable 42-33 record and the fifth seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference.
He's averaging career highs in points (23.8), assists (6.2) and steals per game (0.9), as well as shooting a career-best 41.1 percent from the three-point line. One obvious thing is clear when you watch Jalen Brunson: he doesn't get rattled, no matter the situation.
“It's kind of been the story of my career,” Brunson explained to Haynes in the phone interview. “Ever since I stepped foot in high school, it's, ‘Yeah, Jalen's good, but he's just not that guy.' I've never got my props until I accomplished something. It's very repetitive, but I know what I'm getting myself into. Proving people wrong is not what gets me going. Unfortunately, it's something that I have to go through. I'm not bothered at all by it.”
Brunson signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the Knicks in the offseason, and he's been spectacular for his new team this year. He's got a legitimate chance to win Most Improved Player after leaving the Dallas Mavericks to sign the huge deal.
“It's impossible not to hear the [naysayers],” Brunson told Bleacher Report. “But I do my best to not let that drive me now because at some point, I know I have the ability to prove people wrong. I really don't want to just use it as motivation. My motivation is just to go out there and be the best player I can be every single day.
That's how I've always been. It's how my parents raised me. You can't listen to what people say, good or bad. You got to stay level-headed. It's kind of a blessing in disguise for me because it keeps me working, it keeps me going, it keeps me hungry.”
The second-round pick of the Mavericks in the 2018 NBA Draft has come into his own in 2022-23, and the New York Knicks will be an extremely tough out in this postseason.
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