Jalen Brunson says winning an NBA championship and Finals MVP with the New York Knicks hasn’t changed how he views himself or approaches the game.
“Hasn’t,” Brunson said when asked whether the championship changed him. “That wouldn’t do it.
“It will be the same. It’s something that I get to walk around with and think about when I’m – when I need to give myself a little confidence, or whatever, just in certain situations. But my approach and everything has to be the same. Just because I’ve reached the mountaintop of winning an NBA championship doesn’t mean that it’s over with. I feel like there’s still a lot more to do and a lot more that I can prove. It’s 100 percent always going to be in the mind, I’m just not going to let it define me.”
Brunson led New York to its first championship since 1973, but his mother, Sandra, said he quickly shifted his attention toward what comes next.
“Jalen is the ultimate worker,” she said. “I felt like, while in the moment we celebrated, moments after, days after, but I could see from my perspective that he was like, ‘OK, next. What’s next?’ Because he’s not satisfied. Reaching the pinnacle or the mountaintop is great. But his career is still, he’s still thriving in his career and it’s still on an uptick. I think that he’s like, ‘What’s the next challenge? What’s the next hurdle?’ I saw that in him.
“Everyone sees him as a very focused and disciplined individual while he’s on the court. Off the court, he allowed himself the time to absorb the love and the attention and the appreciation that was felt from the championship, but I think in the back of his mind, he’s just like, ‘OK, what’s the next thing?’ I think he’s the type of person that when his career is over, he’ll look back and appreciate everything that he and his teammates have accomplished, but while in the moment, I think he’s already thinking, ‘How can I get better?’ ”
Brunson admitted the emotions of winning were largely what he expected, but everything that followed surprised him.
“Yes and no,” Brunson said. “I kind of understood what the feeling would be like. In the moment of it happening, I understood what that would be like – I knew I’d be emotional. Just everything after that is what I wasn’t expecting.”
“Obviously there’s a lot of obligations you have to do,” he added. “A lot of things that have already [been] structured into your calendar, a lot of things added in. So there have been a lot of things like that, but still been trying to make time for my family, still make time for my main job.”
Jalen Brunson tells The Post why Knicks championship won’t define him: ‘A lot more that I can prove’ https://t.co/Q82rWwnrkx pic.twitter.com/EPwTEDXFCM
— New York Post (@nypost) August 11, 2026
