You live for nights like these, when it looks and feels and sounds as if all of New York City is throwing a Garden party for you and your Knicks teammates.
After five NBA seasons, Jalen Brunson finally got to experience what it means to wear a Knicks jersey with crazed Basketball New York on his side for a playoff game … Game 3 against the Cavaliers.
Legendary Knick Bill Bradley, nearly 53 years after May 8, 1970, the Willis Reed Game, offered this advice for Brunson:
“Enjoy the moment,” Dollar Bill told The Post. “It’s the world’s greatest basketball crowd, in the world’s greatest arena, with the world’s greatest fans … and do what you know how to do, and do it well. … And when you win, you’ll understand why.”
Now, more than ever, after Knicks 99, Cavs 79, gave his team a 2-1 series lead, Brunson understands why.
“Being in this environment … there’s nothing that comes close to it. And I’m just happy to be a part of it,” Brunson said.
It has been a dream season for Brunson, who has elevated his game and elevated the Knicks at the same time with his selflessness, leadership and court savvy. And so there was Spike Lee courtside, wearing his Brunson No. 11. And there was Brunson, sporting green sneakers.
Brunson tapped his heart twice before tipoff and the chants of “De-Fense and “Let’s Go Knicks” washed over him immediately.
The magnitude of big moments has never been too daunting for Brunson, not at Villanova, not in Dallas, not here. But he was off his game early, when everyone except RJ Barrett seemed afflicted with Garden jitters, so it was Barrett who had the Garden roaring during a first half in which he was the only one who wasn’t a Brickerbocker. To wit: Barrett was 5-for-7 from the floor; the rest of the Knicks were 2-of-17. Barrett finished with 19 points and heard his name chanted in the third quarter after drilling a triple.
But it wasn’t long before Brunson (21 points, six assists, four rebounds, three turnovers, two steals) began resembling his typical self, starting with a steal and a rare (for him) dunk that had the place howling.
“Don’t expect too many more dunks,” Brunson said.
Expect him to keep making most of the right plays and bathing in the warm, sweet embrace of a Garden love affair he will never want to end. As he stepped to the line later to convert a three-point play, he heard “MVP, MVP, MVP.”
“I let the game come to me,” said Brunson, who scored 13 points in the second half.
Bradley is a Brunson fan.
“You always want somebody on the court who can shoot the ball, but who understands that part of his role is helping other players get the best shot they can,” he said.
Brunson’s gift as a basketball savant has been making everyone around him better.
“It’s a little early to say that definitively about him,” Bradley said, “but he certainly has done it in a number of occasions so far. If he continues to build on that, he’ll do very well.”
Bradley, who will be at Game 4 on Sunday, can still recall how an electric Garden electrified all the players who represented the City, and The City Game.
“It fills you with even more adrenaline — not that you always need adrenaline — but it makes you feel like you have 19,500 brothers with you,” Bradley said.
As loud as the Garden was on Friday night, Bradley was there on May 8, 1970 when it reached another decibel level for Game 7 against the Lakers.
“The whole place was shaking when Willis [Reed] came out,” he said. “Quite frankly, in the fifth game when we came back and won, it was very similar. I thought that would be the loudest I ever heard the Garden.”
Bradley only hopes Brunson grows to further appreciate what the Knicks mean to and for New York.
“When the New York Knicks win,” Bradley said, and it has been 50 years since their second and last championship, “they bring the city together by celebrating its best aspects in terms of the humanity, in terms of diversity. In terms of unselfishness, in terms of just competence.”
These Knicks aren’t ready to light up the city that way. At least Jalen Brunson gives New York hope that maybe one day they will.