Dirk Nowitzki didn’t see this coming from Jalen Brunson, and he’s saying it plainly now.
Brunson has grown into one of the league’s top players over the past few seasons, and the Knicks have every reason to embrace him as the face of their team. What makes that rise even more striking is where he started: as a backup guard in Dallas, working behind Luka Doncic and doing the kind of job that rarely points toward stardom.
Nowitzki had a front-row seat for the beginning of it. He shared the floor with Brunson during the guard’s rookie year in the 2018-19 season, and he saw enough to know Brunson was serious about the work. Brunson played in 73 games that season and started 38, showing he could handle a real role right away.
Still, for the next few years, the picture looked pretty stable. Brunson remained in more of a sixth-man role until the 2021-22 season, and from Nowitzki’s view, that looked like the path of a dependable rotation guard, not a future centerpiece.
That changed once Brunson got to New York. In the 2022-23 season, he took off with the Knicks and quickly became a star in the city, even if he had not made an All-Star team yet. From there, the superstar conversation started to build, and Brunson kept forcing doubters to reconsider.
"I was skeptical when he went to New York as the franchise player there. He's a quiet guy, shy guy; to go to that media market, I was a little worried.
Man, it's been unbelievable on and off the floor. Really carried his franchise, so well-deserved to bring back the championship there after 50-something years," Nowitzki said about Brunson on the DLLS Mavs Podcast.
Nowitzki’s praise carries weight because it comes with a clear admission: he was wrong. Brunson has already proven enough to change the conversation, and the run he had during the 2026 season only added to it. He still wants more, too, with the chance to keep pushing forward and keep proving the doubters wrong.
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The bigger issue for New York may be that patience can come with a cost. Delaying talks keeps the Knicks flexible, but it also leaves notable decisions unresolved while the organization has already seen assistant coach Jordan Brink depart for the Bulls and did not retain Gersson Rosas after his contract expired. For a team trying to stay steady around the edges, the next few weeks could say a lot about how aggressively it wants to lock in its future. [Read more 🡒]