Jalen Brunson just won a title and Finals MVP, and a lot of people still have him sitting outside the top five. That should tell you how strange this conversation has become.
The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in five games in June. Brunson dropped 45 points in the clincher. The rest of his teammates scored 49. He walked off with the Bill Russell Trophy and the first Knicks championship since 1973.
Then summer rankings and fan polls arrived, and Brunson kept landing seventh, eighth, ninth, even tenth. The Ringer put him fifth after the Finals. A 250,000-vote fan poll still had him tenth. That gap is the whole story.
What the Resume Actually Looks Like
Since 2023-24 Brunson has made three straight All-Star teams and three straight All-NBA teams. The only other players who made All-NBA in each of those three seasons are Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Over that same stretch only four players have averaged at least 25 points and six assists while shooting better than 37 percent from three: Jokic, Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic and Brunson. He played 216 games in that window, second-most of the four. His three-point percentage sat at 38.5 percent. He also took the fewest free throws per game of the group.
In 2025-26 he played 74 games and averaged 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists on 46.7 percent shooting and 36.9 percent from three. In the playoffs those numbers jumped to 28.4 points on similar efficiency. The Knicks went 16-3. He was Eastern Conference Finals MVP as well.
That is not a volume scorer hiding on a loaded roster. That is the engine.
The Night That Changed the Argument
Game 5 in San Antonio is the clip that should end most debates. Brunson went 14-of-27 from the field, 4-of-7 from three and 13-of-15 from the line. Fifteen of those 45 points came in the fourth. Kirk Goldsberry put it this way after The Ringer ranked him fifth:
“What’s greater than five stars? Brunson just led the New York Knicks to their first title in 53 years. And the NBA’s newest Finals MVP saved his best for last, ripping off 45 points in Game 5 (the rest of his team scored 49) as he led New York to one of the most significant titles this league has ever seen. For decades, the idea that the Knicks could win it all seemed like a fantasy, but Brunson and his teammates just made it a reality. This man is an instant icon in New York and beyond.”
Bill Simmons went further on his podcast. “I think he has to be one of the top 50 players of all time now,” he said, comparing the run to Dwyane Wade in 2006 and Bill Walton in 1977. Simmons slotted him around 40 all-time.
You do not have to buy the all-time jump to accept the current one. A 6-foot-2 second-round pick who just dragged a franchise out of a 53-year drought belongs in the top-five conversation. Size and draft position keep getting used against him. The production does not care.
Where the Skepticism Comes From
The counter-argument is fair on its face. Jokic remains the best offensive player on the planet. Wembanyama just went toe-to-toe with Brunson in a Finals and is a defensive event every night. Gilgeous-Alexander has the MVPs. Doncic’s creation numbers are still otherworldly when he is healthy. Giannis and Edwards bring two-way gravity Brunson does not.
Brunson is not a plus defender. He is not a 7-footer who can switch everything. Some nights in the Finals he was not even the best Knick on the floor for stretches. Those points are real.
They also miss how the league actually works. Winning a title as the clear offensive alpha still counts. Doing it while averaging 32.6 points in the Finals counts more. Doing it for a team that had not won anything in half a century counts most of all.
The underrating started long before the trophy. Brunson was a second-round pick out of Villanova after two national titles and a National Player of the Year award. He was Luka’s running mate in Dallas, then walked into New York and immediately became the best player on a playoff team. Every year the numbers rose and the respect lagged a step behind.
That pattern is still happening. Fans and some analysts treat the championship as a team achievement that somehow does not elevate the guy who scored 45 when everyone else combined for 49.
What It Means Heading Into 2026-27
Brunson had wrist surgery in July and is expected to be ready for training camp. The Knicks are defending champions. The rest of the East will be hunting them. Repeating is brutally hard. That does not erase what already happened.
If Brunson puts up another 26-and-7 season and the Knicks stay in the mix, the ranking debate should be over. If the supporting cast takes a step back and he still carries them, the case gets stronger, not weaker.
The interesting tension is whether people will ever separate “most talented” from “most valuable on a winning team.” Brunson may never be the most physically gifted player in a given top five. He keeps being the one who gets his team where it needs to go.
That used to be enough. For a lot of voters and fans, it still is not.
The title is real. The Finals MVP is real. Three straight All-NBA selections are real. The 45-point closeout is real. At some point the eye test and the box score have to catch up to the banner.
Where do you have Brunson right now? Top five, top seven, or still outside the inner circle? And if a second-round pick winning Finals MVP in New York is not enough, what exactly would be?