How Rick Brunson used basketball to raise Jalen

New York Post

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00:00Dexter Henry here with the great Knicks beat writer for the New York Post, Stephan Bondi.

00:04And, Stephan, you have a fantastic feature that will be coming out in the paper on Sunday

00:08and also on nypost.com about Rick Brunson and Jalen Brunson.

00:12And, obviously, the father-son relationship is always so fascinating,

00:16fascinating for a lot of people around sports.

00:18What do you do this piece?

00:19Obviously, you talked to Rick, you talked to Jalen as well, too.

00:22What did you learn about how Rick shaped Jalen Brunson's career

00:27to turn him into the player that he is today?

00:29Well, he shaped him through training him first in basketball.

00:33He stepped up and took that role.

00:37He trained him through teaching him the mental aspect of it.

00:42And he really focused in on that and how tough you have to be to be an NBA player.

00:46And he also taught Jalen through osmosis, meaning Jalen grew up in a situation

00:51where they moved countless times.

00:54Rick was on a non-guaranteed contract in eight of the nine seasons that he played in the NBA.

01:00So there was this constant need for Rick to, frankly, just be better conditioned than everybody else

01:09and train harder than everybody else.

01:11And you're stressed because you don't know when your next contract is going to be

01:15or if you're going to be unemployed the next day.

01:17So Jalen grew up in that environment and learned from that environment,

01:21different things that kind of applied now to his NBA game.

01:24And they both explained that to me in the interviews.

01:27And we've seen how Jalen obviously has become an all-NBA player, an all-star player here.

01:31But what's interesting, Rick Brunson's still part of the coaching staff.

01:33He's helped Jalen Brunson in his youth now as an adult.

01:37What's the dynamic now as the father-son dynamic, but it's also father-coach as well,

01:42to player-coach, I should say, there.

01:44How does that work out with still your dad?

01:47Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously it's changed.

01:49Jalen is now a superstar and a father and a grown-up himself.

01:52So the father-son dynamic has obviously changed.

01:56But he still, if you watch the games, Rick is the guy still warming up Jalen before every game.

02:01He goes through the same routine.

02:02He's still the guy.

02:04If you watch him, Jalen might be getting a little upset at the referees

02:07and it's getting a little out of control.

02:08Guess who's the one that goes talk to him and talks him out of it?

02:12It's still Rick.

02:13So I think you still see Jalen trusting Rick above anybody else, and that makes sense.

02:18That's his father.

02:18That's the guy who taught him from the very beginning.

02:20Yeah, he's still there in his corner.

02:22I guess the last thing for me here, Steph, and we want people to obviously read this piece on Sunday,

02:26but what do you hope that people take the most from this piece,

02:30and why was it important for you as a writer to write this now with the start of the season?

02:34Yeah, a lot of it is not just the Rick-Jalen dynamic.

02:38It's a story about Rick, and a lot of people don't know his history and what shaped him as a player

02:45and how Jalen grew up.

02:47A lot of people don't know that.

02:48I think part of the story is Rick was in Australia when Jalen was born,

02:52and the first person to tell Rick that his son was born was Leon Rose because he was his agent at that time,

02:59and he says, Leon held my son before me.

03:02So it's a bunch of different stories like that that kind of like are connected to the Knicks,

03:07and I think the Knicks fans will find it interesting.

03:09I think they will find it interesting.

03:11Check that out on Sunday.

03:13We'll be in the Sunday paper for the New York Post, also NYPost.com.

03:16You can check out that feature from Stephan Bondi on Jalen Brunson and Rick Brunson.

03:20Should be a good one.

03:21Steph, appreciate it.

03:22Look forward to reading it.

03:23I hope the rest of you enjoyed as well.

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