Jalen Brunson not letting stress of big contract, New York get to him

Jalen Brunson is ready for this.

Brunson has risen from an overlooked second-round pick to the New York Knicks’ big off-season free agent signing. There’s pressure that comes with getting a $104 million contract and having some analysts say you are overpaid. Pressure comes with being the guy with the ball in his hands, directing the Knicks’ offense in the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

Brunson is ready for this.

Brunson talked about that big contract and the chatter about whether he deserved it with his former teammate J.J. Redick on the Old Man and the Three podcast. Brunson was unfazed (hat tip Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News).

“I’m definitely not ignorant to it. It’s impossible not to see. So that’s the first thing. I’m honored that I got this opportunity to be in this club to make whatever the number is. But no matter what the number is, nothing changes. Nothing changes for me.

“I think the day of me agreeing to terms, before I did any of that, I got my work in. Weightlifting, shooting… Get my work in, do the stuff later. I’ve always been that way. I don’t plan on changing. It doesn’t bother me. I’m going to be the same person, no matter what. No matter what happens, no matter what anybody says. I’m going to be me and I’m not too worried about that.”

One guy sticking up for Brunson and saying he is ready for the pressures of New York is the guy that put him in the spotlight in the first place, former Villanova coach Jay Wright. Here’s what Wright Zach Braziler of the New York Post.

“When Luka [Doncic] was out, he was very comfortable taking on that responsibility in the playoffs. But he’s really smart and he really knows that he needs good players around him, too. His basketball IQ is off the charts.