Winning a championship as your team’s best player puts you in an exclusive club featuring many of the all-time greats: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are just a few of the legendary guys in the club. The list of the best players on a championship team is an extraordinary one to be on.
Back in June, Jalen Brunson became the next great player to put his name on that list. Turning 30 years old on August 31, he has more years to further establish his position among the game’s greats.
To that end, HoopsHype recently posted its list of the 80 greatest NBA players ever. Not included was the reigning NBA Finals MVP.
Brunson’s playoff production is matched by few
Given that his career is far from over, there’s a case that Brunson shouldn’t be on the list yet. That’s fine. There were also 27 more players listed as having received votes, and Brunson wasn’t one of them.
Everyone is better than Jalen Brunson until it’s time to be better than Jalen Brunson. To say that there are at least 107 players—past and present—who should be ranked ahead of a Knicks Mount Rushmore member seems off base.
Since joining the Knicks, Brunson has made the All-NBA Second Team in each of the last three years. He won Clutch Player of the Year in 2024–25, and has earned the moniker “Captain Clutch.”
Then there are the playoffs, where Brunson takes it a step further.
Once the laughingstock of the league, New York has now won eight playoff series in the four years with Brunson on board. He’s averaged 29.4 points in 61 postseason outings while donning a Knicks jersey. He led the league in playoff scoring average last season, a year that culminated in a championship. It all ended with a 45-point masterpiece in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to give New York its first title in 53 years.
There’s a reason there is an actual debate over whether Brunson is the greatest Knick of all-time. The other three who are part of the discussion—Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, and Willis Reed—are firmly within HoopsHype's top 80. Brunson would be a Hall of Famer if he retired today. It just seems crazy that not even one person on HoopsHype’s panel believed Brunson deserved a vote among their top 80 players of all time.
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