{"id":1038469,"date":"2026-09-02T08:13:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038469\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T08:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:13:22","slug":"jalen-brunson-refuses-to-call-himself-king-of-new-york-for-a-very-good-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038469\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson refuses to call himself &#8216;King of New York&#8217; for a very good reason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWcxajNfc2h3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Follow us on Google Discover <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p><strong>New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson does not refer to himself as the \u2018King of New York,\u2019 even if his fans have given him that nickname.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brunson cemented himself as the King of New York with his incredible performances through the 2026 NBA Playoffs, ending the city\u2019s 53-year wait for an NBA Championship.<\/p>\n<p>While fans and even Mayor Zohran Mamdani refer to Brunson as the king now, the 30-year-old Finals MVP would never call himself that.<\/p>\n<p>Jalen Brunson shares the simple reason why he won\u2019t call himself the \u2018King of New York\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Brunson appeared on the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/2094889325284704334?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Road Trippin\u2019 podcast<\/a> to speak to former NBA Champs Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Kendrick Perkins, where he revealed why he wouldn\u2019t call himself the king of NY.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will never call myself the King of New York\u2026 Imagine I get on this call with you, right? I\u2019m like, \u2018Yo, King of New York\u2019s here.\u2019 You guys are going to look like, \u2018What the \u2014-? This dude is so self-centered.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brunson\u2019s humility since the title win has shone through in all of his interviews, with the guard clearly focused on the challenges that await him and the Knicks rather than resting on their laurels.<\/p>\n<p>His nickname might even be more endearing now that he has publicly acknowledged the nickname as a potentially self-centered one if he\u2019s the one using it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2274553959-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Philadelphia 76ers v New York Knicks - Game One\" class=\"wp-image-2604474\" \/>Photo by Al Bello\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>But as long as Knicks fans have a fun time crowning Brunson as the king of the city, they will continue doing so. <\/p>\n<p>Jalen Brunson looking to cement the Knicks as a dynasty<\/p>\n<p>Even if Brunson doesn\u2019t want to be king, he does want to lead the Knicks into a dynastic reign. That starts by becoming the first team to defend their title since the 2018 Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>MORE NEW YORK KNICKS STORIES<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks\u2019 core is a strong five-man unit in their physical primes with Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. <\/p>\n<p>Their versatility as a unit and Brunson\u2019s ability to be one of the best end-of-game on-ball options will make the Knicks major title threats again, even with the improvements around the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Other teams might have more talent on paper, but the Knicks just proved to the world that they have unparalleled functional dominance with their roster, especially when the star leading them can create a bucket at any point he wants.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n<p>   <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson does not refer to himself as the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[24114,1260,3122,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1038469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117200450085613040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}