Jalen Brunson is taking his championship summer straight to Studio 8H.
The Knicks point guard, who helped lead New York to its first NBA championship since 1953 in June, is set to host “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday as the show opens its 52nd season. It’s another box checked for Brunson, and it puts him in some pretty exclusive company among athletes who’ve taken the hosting chair.
Brunson becomes the latest athlete to host the long-running NBC show, following a line that started with Fran Tarkenton in 1977 and most recently included Travis Kelce in 2023. In all, 34 athletes had hosted before Brunson got the call.
He also joins a short list of basketball players to do it. Because the NBA calendar runs alongside the SNL season, the overlap has been rare, and Brunson will be just the fifth basketball player ever to host. The others: Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and LeBron James.
NBC gave fans the first taste of Brunson on the “Saturday Night Live” set with a promo released ahead of the weekend. In the clip, Brunson appears alongside cast member Ben Marshall, and the Knicks guard tries to use the key to New York City to get into Studio 8H.
The premiere figures to lean on Brunson’s title run, which will almost certainly come up during the episode. There’s also an expectation that he won’t be showing up alone; several of his teammates are likely to make an appearance as well.
Brunson may not be the loudest personality in the athlete-host lineup, but being the face of a Knicks title team gives him a very specific kind of presence heading into a New York stage.
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