The parallels have been striking for a while, but the more years Jalen Brunson plays as a Knick, the more games in which he shines, like his dominant performance in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night, the starker the comp becomes. Brunson already exists in a rarefied stratosphere of New York sports.
But there’s something else, too, a connection that becomes more complete the longer he works in our world, the more chapters to this growing legacy of excellence he authors. Brunson is more than just the co-king of New York alongside Aaron Judge, the chasm between those two and any other athlete wider now than it’s ever been.
No, there’s something else now.
Brunson has become the Basketball Jeter.