Jalen Brunson had quite a summer. He went to the World Cup, the US Open tennis tournament and a WWE event at Madison Square Garden. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a New York Yankees game. On each occasion, he somehow managed to steal the spotlight from the people who were actually competing.
He was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2026 and made the rounds at glamorous galas. He danced at parties across New York, gave interviews seemingly everywhere and even found time for Hollywood. He made a brief cameo at the Emmy Awards, filmed an appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and hosted the Saturday Night Live season premiere, for the first and probably last time, because hosting isn't exactly his greatest talent. He did most of this with his left hand in a cast after undergoing surgery.
Gallery
King of New York: Jalen Brunson and the Knicks face their toughest test yet
(Photo: DGeoff Burke-Imagn Images)
None of it would have happened a year earlier. It probably wouldn't have happened to a star who led a team from almost any other city to a championship, either. But Brunson brought the New York Knicks their first NBA title in 53 years, and in the process achieved something approaching Frank Sinatra status in New York. How badly he wants another championship may be one of the defining questions of the new NBA season, which begins Tuesday with the Knicks receiving their championship rings at Madison Square Garden before facing the Philadelphia 76ers and LeBron James.
Mission impossible?
Defending an NBA championship is brutally difficult. There is a reason the league has crowned eight different champions in the past eight seasons. The schedule is long, competition is more balanced than ever, injuries have become an increasingly serious concern, and the NBA playoffs may be the most exhausting road to a championship in American professional sports.
It will be harder still for a team whose title run was genuinely extraordinary, the sort of journey that common sense says happens once in a lifetime. And because these are the New York Knicks, they will have an even bigger target on their backs. Perhaps that is exactly what Brunson and his teammates need.
The Knicks did not make many changes over the summer, and with good reason. Team president Leon Rose spent years carefully putting together this championship roster. It is not particularly young, but it is not old, either. Most of its important players are still in their prime.
Jalen Brunson
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
The core of Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges remains intact. Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson are still there, while Mohamed Diawara, the 21-year-old Frenchman who signed a four-year deal, could earn meaningful minutes this season.
There was, however, one significant loss: Mitchell Robinson. The backup center may have been incapable of making a free throw to save his life, but he played an enormous role in the NBA Finals. That performance helped earn him a lucrative three-year contract with the Boston Celtics.
Andre Drummond has arrived to replace him. Drummond is one of the great rebounders of his generation and can even knock down an open 3-pointer these days. But he is 33, has struggled with injuries and may not be able to provide everything Robinson gave the Knicks, particularly defensively.
The biggest development affecting New York's hopes of repeating did not happen in New York at all. It happened across the Eastern Conference, where the competition has suddenly become deeper, stronger and more star-studded than it has been in years. And much of that activity was a direct response to the Knicks' championship.
Philadelphia built a superteam by bringing LeBron James over from the Western Conference. Giannis Antetokounmpo took his talents to Miami Beach. Kawhi Leonard also left the West, returning to Toronto. Cleveland enjoyed an impressive offseason, while Boston shook things up and somehow still looks as dangerous as ever. Tyrese Haliburton is back in Indiana, and Detroit enters the season after 60 regular-season victories and a painful playoff disappointment that should provide plenty of motivation.
For the Knicks, the road to another meeting with Victor Wembanyama, or a first championship showdown with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic, promises to be punishing.
Andre Drummond
(Photo: AP)
But perhaps that is exactly what they need. More than anything else, New York's chances of winning another title depend on how hungry its players remain.
The current Knicks probably cannot play much better than they did during last season's playoffs. The ghosts of Madison Square Garden seemed to work overtime, turning games they had no business winning into victories. The chances of everything falling into place quite so perfectly again are not especially high.
Still, if the Knicks can rediscover the underdog mentality that carried them through that run, if they can once again convince themselves that nobody gives them enough respect, and if they can stay healthy, which may be the biggest question of all, nobody will want to face them in the playoffs.
This could also be the last season we see this particular group together. Keeping the core intact will become considerably more difficult next year. There were already signs of frustration over the summer from Towns and Hart, both awaiting contract extensions, before the Knicks announced they were suspending negotiations until later in the season.
Nobody knows what effect that uncertainty might have on the locker room. But for now, this is still Brunson's team, still playing at Madison Square Garden and still riding the champagne-soaked high of a championship summer.
The New York Knicks are the defending NBA champions. Anyone who forgets that, or fails to give them the respect they believe they deserve, could find themselves in the same position as Wembanyama: watching New York celebrate.