The New York Knicks entered Wednesday night's bout with the San Antonio Spurs as a 23-9 basketball team with an NBA Cup Championship to show for the one game that didn't count toward that record. Jalen Brunson is the NBA Cup MVP, two-time Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and the recipient of plenty of MVP-level praise from head coach Mike Brown. In the NBA's first All-Star fan voting returns, though, Brunson only came in third place in the Eastern Conference. He didn't even have the most votes in the conference for a point guard, with Tyrese Maxey coming in second overall.
Giannis, Maxey beat Brunson in All-Star voting
It's no surprise that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo led the entire Eastern Conference in All-Star votes. His name has dominated headlines over the past few months given all of the speculation and trepidation surrounding a potential trade request from the Milwaukee Bucks. He's also one of the most popular players in the world, with his Greek-Nigerian heritage making him an international draw.
As a result of both his global appeal and stellar play so far this season, the NBA revealed that Antetokounmpo had received 1,192,296 votes to be an All-Star starter before the cut-off for the initial returns. The surprises began with the second-place spot, though.
The Philadelphia 76ers have a star guard of their own in Maxey, whose 1,072,449 votes left him in second place behind the "Greek Freak." The margin between them was gargantuan in comparison to that between Maxey and the third place vote-getter in Brunson.
The 1,040,601 votes the Knicks' superstar had received before the cut-off left about the same amount of room between him and Maxey as there was between him and the fourth-place Cade Cunningham. The Detroit Pistons are still in first place in the Eastern Conference, despite the Knicks being just 1.5 games behind them through Tuesday. Cunningham received 1,000,171 votes before the cut-off as a result of leading the Pistons through the incredible turnaround from recent seasons.
Maxey absolutely deserves the votes he's gotten. His averages of 30.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game would all be career-best marks if they held through the rest of the season. He might be more deserving of this year's Most Improved Player award than the one he was actually given at the end of the 2023-24 season, when his perception around the league caught up to the ability he had demonstrated the season before.
But for Philadelphia's 25-year-old star and locker-room leader to outpace Brunson in votes? The City of Brotherly Love is a large market, but could easily be outpaced by a hungry New York fanbase, still fired up about the team's Eastern Conference Finals berth and engaged by their early success. Brunson is having an MVP-level season thus far, something his coach affirms often to reporters. Despite coming up clutch on a national stage in the NBA Cup, the 29-year-old couldn't out-do the kid playing in South Philly.
Maybe Brunson's clutch 3-pointer against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day will entice national audiences to show him some more respect. But, for now, it seems fair to think that Knick fans might have been so wrapped up in their team's pursuit of golden hardware that they may not have cared to take the time and cast daily votes for their team's Captain.
A championship trophy is certainly significantly more important than All-Star recognition, especially because Brunson is still on track to be a starter in the event. Maxey garnering more votes is just a funny reminder that Knick fans were lying when they said in the late 2010s that "all they wanted" was a respectable team they could be proud of. They have one, but their eyes are still on the real prize: just as they should be. It's part of why many argue the franchise has the league's greatest fanbase.