Sandra Brunson flew commercially to Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio rather than take the Knicks’ charter and said she never saw the trip as a risk. She had missed a connection in Chicago, drove from Austin to San Antonio and still arrived in time to watch her son Jalen Brunson carry the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 94-90, according to the account.
Sandra Brunson said she texts Jalen a Bible verse before each game and sent Isaiah 43:2 the morning of the clincher: “When you go through deep waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU. When you go through rivers of difficulty, YOU WILL NOT DROWN.” She recalled asking Jalen in his junior year of college for one word to encompass him; he answered “Belief,” she said.
The Knicks captured the franchise’s first championship since 1973, finishing the postseason 16-3 and producing a plus-263 margin of victory, the best in NBA postseason history, according to the account. The team overcame historic deficits in the Finals, rallying from 29-point deficits in each of its four wins in the series, the account said.
Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father and a Knicks assistant coach, celebrated with his family in a quiet room off the locker room. Rick Brunson was Knicks president Leon Rose’s first client in 1995. The account noted that Rose had largely given up on a coaching dream by that time, having been a scrappy point guard at Division III Dickinson College and gone to law school as a fallback plan.
The victory capped a postseason run that the account described as the product of belief and steady construction rather than quick fixes, with family and organizational ties dating back decades playing a role in the celebration that followed the clinching game in San Antonio.
