Jalen Brunson didn’t sound like a player haunted by what he left behind when he explained why he took less money to stay with the Knicks. For him, the decision was bigger than the headline-grabbing number attached to it.
Brunson said during the Wall Street Journal's first-ever WSJ Sports event that the move came with real financial tradeoffs, but it also gave him something more valuable in the moment: peace of mind.
"Everyone looks at it as leaving money on the table. And to a certain degree, it is, the most I could sign for at the time was like $156 million. If I waited a year, it would’ve been about $100 million more," Brunson said during the Wall Street Journal's first-ever WSJ Sports event.
" But the average career in the NBA is about four years. Having that uncertainty of betting on yourself, you don’t really know...
So just having that in my back pocket, knowing I’m good, my family’s good, I can just play free. I don’t have to worry about anything."
That choice raised eyebrows in 2024, when Brunson accepted a massive $100 pay cut with New York. He was already outplaying the expectations that come with being a second-round pick, and he still chose to give the Knicks room to build around him.
The gamble worked out for everyone involved. In the 2025-26 season, the Knicks put together one of the best postseason runs in NBA history and finished it with a Game 5 win over the San Antonio Spurs to claim the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
For Brunson, the money he passed on didn’t disappear from the story. It just became part of the path that led him to becoming the superstar who delivered the Knicks their first title in 52 years.
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