Jalen Brunson has led the Knicks to the championship game of the NBA Cup’s third edition, just a few months after taking them to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in multiple decades.
He dropped 40 points, eight assists, and four rebounds in the Knicks’ 132-120 win over the Magic in the NBA Cup semi-finals. Following the game, Brunson sat down with the Amazon Prime team for NBA coverage for a postgame interview on ‘The Crossover.’
This team included the Mavericks legend, who is Brunson’s former teammate, Dirk Nowitzki, alongside Blake Griffin, Steve Nash, Udonis Haslem, and Taylor Rooks.
“When you left for New York, I wasn’t sure this was gonna work,” said Nowitzki, seemingly with his tongue in cheek.
“Actually, it was the biggest mistake of his life,” joked Blake Griffin while Steve Nash called Nowitzki a “hater.”
“I’m super proud of you and super happy for you. I saw how hard you work, how much it means to you, how much time you put in when nobody’s watching.”
“You prepared yourself for a long time for this moment, and I’m so happy that you’re leading this franchise the way you are. Scoring 30 a night, I never saw that coming. I’m really happy for you, keep going,” concluded Nowitzki.
Jalen Brunson is currently averaging 28.8 points, 6.4 assists, and 3.1 rebounds while shooting 48.7% from the field and 37.6% from the three-point line.
Dirk Nowitzki and Jalen Brunson were teammates for a brief period as Brunson was drafted by the Mavericks in 2018 and the German legend retired one season later in Dallas.
While Nowitzki possibly hated to admit that his former teammate is flourishing elsewhere other than his old team, he couldn’t help but feel happy about his success, considering Brunson and Nowitzki go all the way back to the Knicks star’s rookie season.
Therefore, he showed some love like an elder brother instead of feeling any sense of displeasure that Brunson could have been doing this for the Mavericks right now if they had not messed up his contract situation.
The Knicks now move on to face the Spurs, who pulled off an incredible 111-109 upset on the Thunder to reach the championship game of the NBA Cup. These two teams are set to face off for a chance to win $530,933 per player in Las Vegas on Wednesday (December 17).
