New York Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson opened up about the challenges of defending their NBA championship and the mindset his team must embrace to repeat next season.
The New York Knicks enter the 2026-27 season with targets on their backs as the defending NBA champions.
Position
PG
Age
30
Height
188 cm
Weight
86 kg
Birth place
New Jersey, United States of America
For years, the Knicks struggled to get over the hump in the Eastern Conference. That all changed last season with an incredible playoff run, winning 13 straight games before capturing the title against the San Antonio Spurs.
Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, the main engine behind that title run, opened up on The Road Trippin’ Show about the challenges of repeating as champions next season.
Brunson believes the team must enter the upcoming season with the same – if not tougher – mindset they had last year in order to repeat.
“We have all these people telling us how great we are, we just you know, we won in New York and everyone in New York is up on their high horse everyone saying the best things about us even though middle of the year they were probably saying the worst as well,” Brunson said.
“When we were 2-9. So it was definitely like a roller coaster of a ride but, it’s important for us to come in to the season and be like, ‘All right that’s over with.’ Right? We don’t want to speak of the trophy, we don’t want to talk about the trophy, we don’t want to see the trophy, right? We want to come in with the same mindset if not even tougher mindset we had last year,” he added.
Knicks kept their championship core 
Jalen Brunson, Knicks
Credit AP-Scanpix
As they set their sights on another title, the Knicks have kept the majority of their core players intact for the upcoming season.
They lost only Mitchell Robinson and Jeremy Sochan from last season’s roster, with Robinson having played a particularly key role as the team’s long-term center.
To replace him, they signed veteran center and former All-Star Andre Dummond while re-signing core role players such as Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado to new deals.
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