Jalen Brunson has found himself in a unique position. A Finals win is the last box to check in a career that seems like a relic in today’s basketball world. The league has become younger and more global every year. Brunson is the last chance to see what basketball in America used to look like.

The New NBA Prototype

The last 15 years, give or take, have seen the NBA come to value raw traits in the draft rather than maturity. Ben Simmons, DeAndre Ayton, and Zion Williamson are recent number one picks that were drafted after one college season for their physical gifts, while ignoring the aptitude above the shoulders. Since 2010, number one picks have accumulated three titles, no MVPs, and no Finals MVPs.

This trend, while bringing productivity to the league, goes against the grain of the greats in league history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spent all four years at UCLA. Michael Jordan and Steph Curry each spent three seasons in college. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were the only anomalies coming straight from high school and being the clear-cut best players on title-winning teams.  

The common denominator for those greats, and others who won titles, is that they learned how to lead and win. Kareem and Jordan got that in college, winning national championships. Curry got it by leading a talent-deficient team to the Sweet 16. Currently, the NBA leans into players who are too young to have learned leadership and who have not developed emotional maturity.

European players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic come into the league more ready than American players who are the same age, because they are offered a different path to the NBA. European prospects have been playing professionally for years before coming to the United States. They are playing and learning alongside professionals, not other 18–20-year-olds.

Enter Jalen Brunson

Brunson’s path closely follows that of the other historical American greats. He played three years at Villanova, going from a freshman with upside to a junior leader, winning two National Championships along the way. He fell to the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft and had the emotional resilience to be patient and wait for his moment.

Brunson’s slide down the draft board shows how NBA executives have not valued refined leaders. Some of the players drafted ahead of him included Mo Bamba, who is more famous for a song than his basketball, DeAndre Ayton and Trae Young, who have had their games questioned for years, and Michael Porter Jr., who has shown a great deal of immaturity with off-court issues.

Brunson has proven the NBA’s mistake in the 2018 Draft. He is second in his draft class for games played, fourth in points, third in assists, and third in win shares. This is more impressive when factoring in that he started in less than 46% of his games for the first half of his career while in Dallas.

The moment he arrived in New York, Brunson showed the importance of taking development seriously. He immediately became the full-time starter, jumped from 12 to 26 points per game, nearly doubled his assists per game, and maintained his efficiency while doubling his shot volume. He turned that opportunity into three all-star teams, all-NBA twice, and now a chance to bring a title back to the Garden. The NBA continues to chase the physical beasts in the Draft, but Jalen Brunson is what the league has always been: smart and determined.

The Dying Breed of American Superstars

The last true American superstar in the league prior to Brunson was Curry. There have been great American-born players over the last decade, but none have maxed out the combination of icon and winning like Brunson. Anthony Edwards has yet to make a Finals appearance. Jayson Tatum’s title felt like it was more about Brad Stevens’ brilliance in the front office than about any singular player. Even Kevin Durant was viewed as a disappointment prior to winning with the Warriors, a move that has been heavily criticized.  Kawhi Leonard had the winning, but he never carried the same weight as an icon.

Brunson can fulfill both sides of that equation. He is the consensus best player on his team. He is the betting favorite for Finals MVP. Most importantly, he is playing for a storied franchise. Winning with the Knicks gives a bigger boost to a legacy. Sorry, Damian Lillard, but getting to a Western Conference Finals in Portland does not compare to playing Finals games in the Mecca. It was cool that Kyrie Irving hit the series winner in 2016, but that was LeBron’s show. Brunson giving the Knicks their first title since 1973 would skyrocket him up the legacy leaderboard.

Brunson, like Curry in 2015, is having this play out in real time. En route to his first title, Curry knocked out rising stars and contemporaries. It was Anthony Davis in the first round, James Harden in the Conference Finals, and then LeBron in the Finals. Brunson has done away with the Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid Sixers, forced Donovan Mitchell and James Harden into submission, and now has, arguably, the best player alive in Victor Wembanyama on the ropes in the Finals. With two more wins, Brunson cements himself among the greats.

Brunson should be serving as a reminder to NBA front offices. Sometimes that junior may not jump off the screen visually, but they have been battle-tested. The traits of that raw freshman might be incredible, but do teams really feel comfortable handing the keys over to a 19-year-old? Those juniors and seniors with years of starting under their belts are grownups. They have gotten years of media training. They have taken underclassmen under their wings. They know how to lead and handle adversity. They, just like Brunson, are resilient.

The NBA has no signs of stopping its practices, however. The league is embracing the benefits of dipping into international talent year over year, along with being enamored by physically gifted freshmen. This leaves the real possibility for Brunson to be the last of his kind.