Stephen A. Smith is calling Jalen Brunson a hero.
On a segment of the “Stephen A. Smith Show” on Thursday, the ESPN talking head said Brunson “saved the NBA” by winning a championship, and that if the Spurs won, the league would’ve focused solely on how to stop Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama.
“He [Brunson] literally saved the NBA because if Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs had captured an NBA championship, everybody would be evolving their game planning, their drafting, their analysis and everything that come with it,” Smith said.
Jalen Brunson shoots a free throw during the Knicks’ win over the Spurs in Game 2 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio. NBAE via Getty Images“Everything would have been evolving around ‘How we do knock off the [7-foot-4] alien from France?’”
“You would’ve seen cats who might’ve been inferior talent, but they would’ve still turned around and drafted them anyway just because they were 6-foot-10 or 6-foot-11 or 7-feet tall because you need height when you’re going up against Wemby,” he added.
Smith wants everyone to truly appreciate what Brunson’s title did for the NBA, and said teams could now look at smaller guards in the draft and not be fazed by their height.
The analyst specifically pointed to Darius Acuff Jr. and Darryn Peterson, two projected top-10 picks and smaller guards in the upcoming NBA draft, as players who could be looked at differently after Brunson’s heroics.
“To see him [Brunson] play and to use his marvelous footwork, basketball IQ, poise, seasoning and fearlessness… to see him do that, just think about what that would mean to everybody. Think about what that does for the game of basketball,” Smith said.
Victor Wembanyama looks on during the Spurs’ season-ending
Game 5 loss to the Knicks. NBAE via Getty Images“Without him winning this title, our default position would’ve been ‘How are we going to deal with the [7-foot-4] alien’?”
Even with critics calling him “too small” and not a “1A player”, Brunson rose to the occasion and won Finals MVP, guiding the Knicks to their first title in 53 years.
Brunson averaged 32.6 points per game across the series and scored 45 points in a closeout Game 5.
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Though Wembanyama still averaged 26 points in the Finals, he shot just 9-for-25 in Game 4 and 7-for-19 in Game 5 to seal the Spurs’ fate.
