Knicks Star Plays Coy After Fantastic Fourth

Never ask a magician — or New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson — to reveal his secrets.

Brunson refused to offer a behind-the-scenes look of his Saturday night comeback story, which saw him simultaneously frighten and thrill the masses gathered for the Knicks' 2025 postseason opener against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden.

Panic gripped Manhattan when Brunson grabbed his ankle after a late third quarter get-together with Dennis Schroder, the same ankle that kept him out for nearly a month of the regular season. Like fellow New York icon Taylor Swift before him, Brunson literally shook it off to post an incredible comeback effort, one that saw him score a game-best 34 points in a 123-112 New York victory.

Unlike the ball that routinely flew from his hands during second half action, Brunson kept the details of his revival close to the chest. Brunson was not on the Knicks bench to start the fourth quarter but he went as far as to deny that he absconded into the MSG home locker room.

Stefan Bondy "Did you change sneakers?"

Jalen Brunson "Did I come out in different pair?"

SB "Yes"

JB "Then yes"

SB "Was that the key to your 4th?"

JB "No the Key was Cam Payne…"

SB "Why'd you change shoes?"

JB "IDK"

Ian Begley "Ankle bothering you?"

JB "Feels great"
🤣 pic.twitter.com/WwAwB7BzzW
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) April 20, 2025

"I wasn't in the locker room," Brunson coyly remarked in his public postgame statements (h/t New York Basketball on X). "I wasn't in the locker. I was just sitting on the bench."

Wherever Brunson was, the poor Pistons perhaps prayed he stayed there. Instead, Brunson returned with a vengeance, uniting with fellow backcourt rep Cameron Payne and "roommate" Josh Hart to post a 21-0 New York run that permanently placed momentum in the Knicks' corner. Brunson and Payne united for the first 17 tallies, with Payne scoring 11 of his 14 in the final period.

Brunson at the very least admitted that he "[came] out with a different pair of shoes on" when asked if he changed sneakers after the supposed ankle flare-up. True to the attitude that secured him the Knicks' captaincy, however, he opted to place a focus on the team's comeback rather than his own.

"The key was Cam Payne ... the violation at the beginning of the fourth quarter and the way we started the first couple of minutes, that was the key," Brunson said. "It's a credit to those guys."

After that, Brunson continued to keep secrets: asked why he switched to the fateful footwear, Brunson, hardly able to contain laughter, quickly quipped "I don't know." He had an equally rapid response of "feels great" when asked about the status of the ankle in questions.

To Brunson's prior point, the Knicks foreshadowed their offensive fury with a brilliant defensive response at the top of the final frame: down by eight at the onset, a press from New York forced a five-second violations before any time was removed from the clock.

The Knicks then forced another timed violation, this one of the 24-second shot clock variety. In between the unforced errors, Karl-Anthony Towns put in a floating double and a three-pointer off a feed from Miles McBride.

Brunson, however, stole headlines with yet another postseason memory, one that gave him a dozen playoff games scoring at least 30 in a Knick uniform. That's tied for the second-most in franchise history with the late Willis Reed after less than two postseasons in Manhattan. Saturday was a comeback effort in more ways than one for Brunson, who began the game missing all but two of his first 13 tries from the field before finishing 10-of-14 to close things out.

Refusing to break the mood, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was equally mysterious when asked where Brunson went after the get-together with Schroder—but New Yorkers will no doubt happily buy his explanation.

"I think he went grab his cape," Thibodeau said in video from MSG Network.

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