{"id":336676,"date":"2026-06-15T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336676\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:00:26","slug":"jalen-brunson-deserves-a-statue-outside-msg-for-more-than-knicks-championship-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336676\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson deserves a statue outside MSG for more than Knicks championship alone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Kenny Smith, a product of Lefrak City in Queens and the concrete courts across the boroughs, perfectly explained Jalen Brunson\u2019s impact. It\u2019s not just the experience of a single championship. It was the reinvigoration of NYC\u2019s enthusiasm for a team, a sport and an ability to unite around something even after politics infiltrated MSG.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI called it the lamp that was plugged in with no power,\u201d Smith, the two-time NBA champ and current ESPN analyst, said Saturday. \u201cThere was no power in New York. And he brought the power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brunson is <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/14\/sports\/jalen-brunson-still-wont-clap-back-at-his-1a-haters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">certainly in the conversation for<\/a> greatest Knick ever after leading the franchise to its first title in 53 years. But Clyde Frazier and Willis Reed are still winning the ring count, so it\u2019ll remain an ongoing debate until Brunson wins another title or two.<\/p>\n<p>Then, of course, the debate widens to something else \u2014 with Brunson chasing Stephen Curry or Isiah Thomas in the highest pantheon of small guards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Kenny Smith, a product of Lefrak City in Queens and the concrete courts across the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31021,44345,3080,6396,82,84,83,154,16318,38352,89481],"class_list":["post-336676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-sports-plus","tag-statues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}