No question that Jalen Brunson is Prince of the City. But when some excitable opinionators with New York roots wonder if he\u2019s the city\u2019s all-time greatest athlete, recency bias has run amok.<\/p>\n
Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Namath, Seaver and Reggie Jackson left their own indelible marks on New York. So, it goes without saying, did Jackie Robinson. More recently, there\u2019s been Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Lawrence Taylor. Even Eli Manning brought home a pair of Super Bowl trophies.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s just say that Brunson\u2019s added his name to that list. With time to move up.<\/p>\n
No. 1: During their championship run, the Knicks, it\u2019s widely agreed, united New York in a way that the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets, with their competing fan bases, can\u2019t. And where does that leave the poor, unloved Brooklyn Nets? Will they even exist anymore in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers?<\/p>\n
Just asking: Is it any surprise that Stephen A. Smith can\u2019t stop making the Knicks\u2019 championship all about him?<\/p>\n
Future watch: The Spurs, the youngest NBA team to reach the finals since the 1977 Trail Blazers, folded like origami. But this column is nothing if not positive, right? The big picture shows that with an average player age of 25, San Antonio is well ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n
A matter of fact: Too often, those who prematurely decide which young basketball players aren\u2019t championship timber choose to ignore that Michael Jordan didn\u2019t win a first NBA title until he was 28.<\/p>\n
Pending: It\u2019s hard to fathom how any day now, the usually impeccably run Celtics might trade Jaylen Brown, one of the NBA\u2019s most dynamic wings, for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Breaking up the Brown-Jayson Tatum tandem for the Greek Freak, an old 31 with recurring lower-body injuries, is a gamble the C\u2019s shouldn\u2019t feel the need to make.<\/p>\n
Numbers game: This year\u2019s Super Bowl attracted 125 million viewers. This opening World Cup game \u2014 a group-stage match between Mexico and South Africa \u2014 was watched worldwide by 1.2 BILLION.<\/p>\n
Fit to be tied: Courtesy of the World Cup comes the occasional headline that might not register with American audiences \u2014 e.g., \u201ca thrilling draw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Idle thought: You couldn\u2019t choose a better name for a British soccer legend than Harry Kane.<\/p>\n
Capital improvements: Even with baseball\u2019s lowest active payroll, the Nationals appear to be building something. They climbed to three games over .500 for the first time in seven seasons.<\/p>\n
Travel adventures: We\u2019ll know a lot more about the dodgy direction of the Orioles\u2019 season after they finish a current West Coast trip (Mariners, Dodgers, Angels).<\/p>\n
Armed and dangerous: Coming off a 15-strikeout, one-hit complete game \u2014 and with a baseball-best 1.34 ERA \u2014 Brewers 24-year-old right-hander Jacob Misiorowski has replaced the Pirates\u2019 Paul Skenes as the world\u2019s most fascinating pitcher.<\/p>\n
Prediction: An American man will reach the final at this year\u2019s Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
Closing: Brendan Sorsby would be the first to expect heavy wagering on who selects him in the NFL\u2019s supplemental draft.<\/p>\n
Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No question that Jalen Brunson is Prince of the City. But when some excitable opinionators with New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11496,85,20,9,11,10,22,400,319,431,33009],"class_list":["post-271087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-college-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nfl","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}