Jalen Brunson was part of the Knicks’ last NBA Finals team — as a toddler. Now he’s their star.

BasketballJalen Brunson was part of the Knicks’ last NBA Finals team — as a toddler. Now he’s their star.Brunson spent time around his father’s 1999 New York team, the last to reach the championship round, as a 2-year-old.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Leila Register / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 27, 2026, 6:30 AM EDTBy Andrew GreifAfter the New York Knicks advanced Monday to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, their star guard Jalen Brunson appeared calm amid the team’s celebration.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Brunson, after all, had been here before — when he was 2. Brunson is 29 now. When he was a toddler, however, he was a regular in the Knicks’ locker room during the 1998-99 season as his father, Rick, was a backup guard on the last New York team to play for an NBA championship. The Finals have come full circle.“I’m not shocked by Jalen’s career, but I’m really happy for it,” Chris Dudley, a center on the 1999 team, told NBC News. Still, he allowed, “it was a little bit surreal to have Rick’s son be the star of the Knicks.”Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty ImagesThe Knicks have reached the Finals by winning in historically lopsided fashion — 11 consecutive victories by an average margin of more than 25 points. When Brunson was awarded Most Valuable Player of the conference finals Monday, Knicks icon Patrick Ewing helped hand him the trophy.“I’ve been knowing Jalen since he was a baby,” Ewing, the Hall of Fame center who was the Knicks’ heart and soul from 1985 to 2000, told NBC News this spring. “He would always be in the locker room, always bouncing the ball, following me all over.”For most of the past quarter-century, the Knicks occupied an odd place within the NBA. Though they were the...