Charles Barkley claims Jalen Brunson ‘made New York Knicks relevant for the first time since Patrick Ewing’

Jalen Brunson lost out to Damian Lillard for the All-Star starters role due to fan votes.

Charles Barkley claims Jalen Brunson ‘made New York Knicks relevant for the first time since Patrick Ewing’

Charles Barkley thinks Jalen Brunson has made the New York Knicks relevant (image via Open Source, X)

The starters for the upcoming All-Star game were announced by the NBA recently. On knowing how the voting race concluded, Inside the NBA on TNT analyst and basketball Hall Of Famer Charles Barkley had a compelling argument about New York Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson.

The voting for the All-Star starters at the guard position was very close. Jalen Brunson marginally lost out to Daman Lillard. In response to this, Barkley said:

I can't believe what a great player he has turned into. He's made the New York Knicks relevant for the first time since Patrick Ewing.
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He added that Brunson has elevated his game enough to be an All-Star starter. According to Barkley, Brunson has played better than Lillard this season, even if slightly. He claimed that he meant no disrespect to Lillard, but Brunson has made a compelling argument for his spot as a starter. Barkley added that Brunson’s signing might be the best free-agent addition ever.

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To this, co-analyst Kenny Smith argued that how can one forget the free-agent signings of their colleague Shaquille O’Neal to the Los Angeles Lakers, or even that of Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors. To this, Barkley replied that both of those players were already well regarded as one of the best in the league.

Brunson was valued as a solid starter during free agency. However, Barkley claimed that not even the Knicks realized how good the player could be. Host Ernie Johnson mentioned that Lillard and Brunson received identical numbers in the voting. The tie-breaker that edged Lillard was in the form of fan votes.

Jalen Brunson’s rise to the top among the NBA’s Elite

Jalen Brunson is the son of former NBA player and current Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson. The former Villanova Wildcat was voted as the college basketball player of the decade. The Wildcats won two of the four trips to the NCAA tournament on the back of Brunson’s stellar play. The Dallas Mavericks picked Brunson with their 33rd pick in the second round.

Damian Lillard beat Jalen Brunson to be the All-Star starter, additional fan votes gave the edge to Lillard
Damian Lillard beat Jalen Brunson to be the All-Star starter. (image via Open Source, X)

After a steady rise to a starter for the Mavericks, Brunson faced a dilemma during the 2022 free-agency period. He signed with his hometown Knicks to a four-year $104 million deal. Since then he has been breaking his season averages. This year, he is posting his best numbers in every statistic maintained by the league. More importantly, he has taken over as the de facto leader and primary scorer for the Knicks.

With this sort of a rise, it was apt for Barkley to have wanted Brunson to start. After all, the player has been working hard over the years to finally earn it.

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