Marcello Hernandez had the ESPYs crowd laughing, but Jalen Brunson still owned the night.
Brunson walked away with both the “Best NBA Player” and the “Best Championship Performance” awards at the 2026 ESPYs, while Hernandez, serving as host, spent part of the show turning the spotlight toward nepotism jokes, the Knicks, and the NBA in general.
One of Hernandez’s sharpest lines came before the second Brunson award was announced. He pointed to a few familiar names across sports and tied them together with a punchline aimed at family connections.
“A lot of young players have also hit the scene. Bronny James, LeBron James’ son, is in the NBA now; Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders’ son, is in the NFL; and Jalen Brunson, Rick Brunson’s son, got to win an NBA title with his dad as the coach.”
“Which proves that nepotism, like most things, is way cooler when a Black guy does it. Rick Brunson looked at me like something’s coming, I know,” Hernandez hilariously said during his monologue at the event.
The broadcast cut to Brunson’s reaction, and he was smiling and chuckling, taking the joke in stride.
Hernandez also worked in a dig at Bill Belichick while praising the Knicks. After opening with, “Congratulations, KAT, Jalen, and Mikal.
They didn’t think you could do it. But you did it, Pappi, and that’s fire,” he followed with a line that sent the crowd into a louder burst of laughter.
“The Knicks won their first NBA championship since 1973. And to put into perspective how long ago that was, hockey players did not wear helmets, basketball did not have a three-point line, and Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now,” he added as the crowd exploded in laughter.
Hernandez later shifted to the WNBA’s new CBA, saying it would put more money in players’ pockets. He then joked that the extra cash “makes room for a new reality show” for the WNBA players, though this time it would mostly still be “basketball wives”.
Still, the biggest moment belonged to Brunson. When he accepted the “Best Championship Performance” award, he kept his remarks focused on the people around him.
“First and foremost, I want to say thank you to my family. Then I want to thank James Dolan and the Knicks organization.
Leon, the front office, Mike Brown, my teammates, without them, none of this would be possible. They allow me to be me, and I’m forever indebted to them,” said Brunson.
His championship Game 5 was the kind of performance that makes an award like this feel inevitable: 45 points, three rebounds, and three assists on 51.9% shooting and 57.1% shooting from three-point range.
That capped a dominant series overall, with Brunson averaging 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 42.1% from the field and 38.9% from deep. It also earned him the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award.
Hernandez’s jokes landed on a topic everyone in the room understood, but they didn’t change the larger story: Brunson’s night was about the production on the floor, and the awards made that plain.
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