Jalen Brunson dazzled down the stretch as the New York Knicks took a 1-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals with a 105-95 win in Game 1 on Wednesday. Brunson’s play had Knicks forward Josh Hart claim his teammate is still underrated, and ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon agrees.
Wilbon showered praise on Brunson on First Take on Friday and took some shots at his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Luka Doncic.
“The outside perception, he’s still underrated,” Wilbon said. “… I have a vote, and I was trying to figure out, well, have I voted for Jalen Brunson First Team All-NBA? I haven’t. Voted for him second… We value other stuff that we shouldn’t value. So, let me go against my own vote. Jalen Brunson’s at least as valuable as Luka Doncic. At least.
“Because Jalen Brunson’s not a great defender, but he doesn’t take a I don’t give a damn about half the game approach,” Wilbon continued. “… He’s a willing defender. [Iman Shumpert], if I compare him to sort of like early Steph [Curry], right? Willing, but… Luka doesn’t care about that side. But yet, we value that. We value the 37 points a game, whatever it is.
“North Texas blew up because they got rid of Luka,” Wilbon added. “Nobody had that reaction when Jalen Brunson walked out of North Texas. They didn’t. Dallas didn’t know what they had.”
Well, Wilbon might have a point about Brunson being underrated, but this was an odd comparison. There is a very good reason why the reaction wasn’t the same.
Brunson hadn’t even made an All-Star team when he left the Mavericks for the Knicks in 2022, and was coming off a season in which he averaged only 16.3 points per game. He had impressed in the 2022 playoffs by upping his average to 21.6 points, but he still wasn’t seen as someone who could turn into a superstar.
Doncic, on the other hand, had made five All-Star and five All-NBA teams when the Mavericks traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025. He had also won the scoring title in 2024 and had led the team to the NBA Finals that year.
Now, in hindsight, losing Brunson was almost as big a blow, but you can definitely understand why Mavericks fans were so much more upset about Doncic being shipped out of town. The front office had just traded away a generational talent who didn’t even want to leave.
As for the talk about defense, this isn’t the first time Wilbon has brought it up. He is an MVP voter and said back in March that he didn’t even want to talk about Doncic because he doesn’t play any defense.
Wilbon would eventually have Doncic fifth on his ballot, while Brunson was left off entirely. That might be a decision he regrets now, but the Slovenian undoubtedly was better in the regular season.
Doncic just won his second scoring title by averaging 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, and the talk about his not caring about defense is a bit overblown at this point. He was putting in effort in the second half of the season, and doesn’t deserve the criticism that continues to come his way.
As for Brunson, he does deserve all the praise coming his way. The 29-year-old had 30 points (12-31 FG), three rebounds, and two assists against the Spurs in Game 1.
Brunson struggled from the field for much of the night, but came alive in the fourth with 13 points on 5-9 shooting from the field. The three-time All-Star continues to be one of the most feared clutch players in the NBA and has the Knicks just three wins away from their first championship since 1973.
