The New York Knicks are NBA Champions for the first time in 53 years. And when the final buzzer sounded Saturday night, their star did not celebrate with his teammates first. He found his father.
Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 45 points to lead the Knicks past the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5, closing out a championship that this city has waited more than half a century for.
But the moment that stopped everyone in the building was what came next - a long, emotional embrace between Jalen and his father Rick Brunson, who serves as a Knicks assistant coach.
Rick Brunson knows this stage well. He played for these same Knicks in the 1999 NBA Finals against these same Spurs - and lost in five games. Jalen was three years old.
Twenty-seven years later, they became the first father-son duo in NBA history to each reach the NBA Finals while associated with the same franchise - against the same opponent. This time, the outcome was different.
"On the outside, I was calm," Rick said after the game. "Meanwhile, I'm screaming inside."
"I get so much pride watching him," Rick had told ABC News earlier in the series. "Hopefully we can get to the mountaintop and celebrate as a family." On Saturday night, they did exactly that.
Brunson has long been known for attending chapel before games, and has spoken openly about faith guiding his career.
He is part of a Villanova trio on the Knicks - alongside Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges - whose ties to the Catholic university became one of the defining storylines of this championship run. For Brunson, the mountaintop was always about more than basketball. Saturday night proved it.
Related Article: NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson Is a Devoted Christian and He Just Helped Deliver New York's First Championship Since 1973
