Jay Wright

When you look at Brunson, you even said this publicly that you didn't think he was a one.

Maybe he was going to be a two, a complimentary, kind of the way he was in Dallas, or maybe a three on a championship team.

What is it about him that makes him made for these moments here?

Ben, I think he just proved it to everybody and proved it to me.

I really thought the Dallas situation when Luka Doncic was kind of the go-to guy, maybe the little bit more wild.

wild score but dominant physical player and jalen was kind of the brains of the team and the and the leader and and the the go-to guy when you needed him i thought that was perfect for him and when he made the decision to go to new york i i never we talked i don't

I don't think he asked my opinion.

I think he was just kind of talking it through, kind of telling me what he was going to do.

And I didn't tell him what to do, but he specifically said, like, I want to lead a team.

And I said, you know, go for it, my man.

You got to trust yourself.

But what he has done is taken, and he did this in high school, and he did it in college, and now he's done it in the NBA, which has blown my mind.

He's taken his perceived inadequacies, like being too small, being too slow, not being athletic enough, and figured out how people are defending him and how to use that to his advantage.

His changing speeds, his physicality, his footwork, he uses that based on the fact that people don't think he's athletic.

He's more athletic than people think.

He's faster than people think.

He's actually bigger than people think, too.

They say he's 6'1".

He's bigger than 6'1".

But he uses that all to his advantage and holds no grudge against anybody that thinks that of him.