Listen, Becky Hammon’s premise wasn’t wrong. Her delivery was sloppy and she was unnecessarily offensive to Jalen Brunson while declaring the Knicks point guard is too short to be a 1A star.
But Hammon’s suggestion last week that taller basketball players have a big advantage is neither controversial nor groundbreaking. It’s mostly just, “Duh.”
We’re guessing that Hammon, moonlighting as an ESPN analyst these days, wouldn’t have been so forceful with her criticism if the subject was Donovan Mitchell, Ja Morant or Dame Lillard. That’s because, in addition to being about 6-foot-1, Brunson can’t jump out of the gym like those three.
But that’s the story of Brunson’s career. It’s always about what he can’t do.
Until he does it.
“They’re playing through him, they’re giving him every opportunity and he’s taking full advantage of it,” Lillard, the Bucks point guard, said.
Christmas at the Garden became Brunson’s latest triumph, a 38-point explosion that included a clutch shot with 1:11 left that assured a 129-122 victory over the Bucks. He carved up the Bucks’ defense, weaving through double teams, navigating pick-and-rolls with precision, finding his spots.
And it wasn’t just Brunson’s scoring.
He had the ball in his hands more than anybody and collected a grand total of zero turnovers in 37 minutes. There’s no such thing as mistake-free basketball, but Brunson was pretty close in the second half.
“Needed a little bit more energy today and it showed, from start to finish,” Brunson said. “In the past we’ve had spurts where we had great energy and we made comebacks, we’ve taken the lead but we played with the lead the whole game today and just found a way to keep it.”
Put another way: While sharing a Garden court with Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Julius Randle, Brunson was the best player of a marquee matchup.
Not even his closest friends were envisioning this in college.
“I always knew he put the work in to be successful. But, even me, I didn’t know how it would translate to the NBA style,” Josh Hart said. “But s–t, when did I know? Probably like three years ago when he started doing it.”
Of course, it’s not always going to be like this for Brunson and the Knicks. More often than not against the best, they lose. And that goes to Hammon’s point.
Nine times out of 10, Goliath beats David. There’s a reason the NBA Finals MVPs are 6-2 and over, with exceptions over the last 33 years for Steph Curry, Tony Parker and Isiah Thomas.
Take, for instance, Antetokounmpo, a gigantic Finals MVP. He was doing Greek Freak things on Christmas, gliding across a basketball court like a triple-jump Olympian, Euro-stepping around the defenders like practice cones, finishing with the type of power we haven’t seen since Shaquille O’Neal. He scored 32 points with 13 rebounds easily.
The Knicks don’t have that type of athlete. But they have an All-Star point guard (yes, Brunson should make it), a coach that prepares like every game is the Super Bowl and a strong chance against contenders if two other things happen: 1) the opposition doesn’t hit over 50 percent of its 3-pointers and; 2) at least three of their Big 4 (Brunson, Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley) score efficiently.
That happened on Christmas at the Garden. A victory for the basketball underdogs.
“Everybody on the outside is going to have something to say about what can be done, what can’t be done,” Lillard said. “But you truly never know because s–t happens.”
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