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P.J. Tucker, the former NBA player who played for the Knicks in his final season (2024-25), recently sat down with his former Bucks teammate, Jeff Teague, and his friends for an interview on the Club 520 podcast. They asked Tucker to pick between Jalen Brunson and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“That’s a tough one,”said Tucker. “But I’m a Knick, so I’m rolling with JB for sure. I’m rolling with JB for sure. JB’s so clutch, bro. It ain’t even like I think he’s like a 90’s era player, bro.”
“And people don’t see it like that. Because he don’t talk a lot and he don’t going to do too much, but everybody like when you on his team and you on the bench, you over there like he’s getting the ball, bro.”
“He’s going to, even if he’s not shooting, he’s making the play every single time. And it’s a lot of teams in this league that got stars and all that, and they do not want the moments.”
“When the moment is there, and your star player just passes it off to somebody else. JB is going to take that, whether he makes or misses, with the same energy every time. And that is a rarity,” Tucker concluded.
Jalen Brunson is currently sitting on top of the basketball world after leading the Knicks to an NBA championship. Whoever wins the NBA Finals MVP usually makes a compelling case for being the best basketball player in the world at that time.
However, a close second in the race for best player is usually the regular season MVP, which in this case was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Some may argue that, in comparison to the postseason, the regular season numbers are immaterial. And Tucker’s opinion could be biased since he’s a former Knicks player. So let’s compare their performances through the 2025-26 playoffs to see who was more effective.
Jalen Brunson played in 19 games in the playoffs, where he averaged 28.4 points, 6.1 assists, and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 46.5% from the field and 36.3% from the three-point line.
Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 27.6 points, 7.9 assists, and 2.9 rebounds on 46.3% shooting from the floor and 30.5% from behind the arc. Clearly, other than assists, Jalen Brunson outperformed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in every statistical category.
Therefore, the numbers also back P.J. Tucker’s answer that Jalen Brunson is currently a better plan than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Paolo Banchero Praises Jalen Brunson For His Leadership
Paolo Banchero, the Magic’s star player, recently sat down with Stephen A. Smith for an interview. When asked about Brunson, Banchero had a lot of great things to say.
“He’s a hell of a basketball player; he goes out there, and he plays to win every night, and that’s something I admire about him. I got to know him while playing with him on the World Cup team. He’s a hell of a leader, one of the hardest workers that I’ve been around.”
“I was not surprised by the way he performed, but I think it’s good for the game for a guy like him to win Finals MVP and lead his team to a championship,”concluded Banchero on Brunson.
Therefore, this championship has not just redefined the Knicks’ history but has also put Jalen Brunson’s legacy on track to potentially earn a spot in the Hall of Fame someday.
