Jalen Brunson has been through the college title game at Villanova. He won gold medals with Team USA. But none of it prepared him for what he felt inside Madison Square Garden during a Knicks playoff run.
The point guard sat down with Sports Illustrated and said it was that first postseason series in New York that finally clicked for him. “First playoff series in New York. I think this when I understood that the Garden was different.”
He knew the building had history. Everyone knows that. But knowing and feeling are two different things. “Like, I knew the Garden was always different but to be able to experience it, playoffs in the Garden, the Garden was real,” Brunson said. “And I knew that homecourt advantage was a real thing.”
The championship run that changed everything
Fast forward to the 2025-26 season and Brunson wasn’t just talking about homecourt advantage anymore. He was the reason the Knicks had one. He led New York to its first NBA championship since 1973, taking down Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in five games. The Finals MVP trophy went home with him.
That run turned Madison Square Garden into something else entirely. The crowd noise during those playoff games was legitimately disruptive. Opponents struggled to communicate. Timeouts felt like they helped the Knicks more than the other team. That’s not luck. That’s the building doing what it does when it matters most.
Brunson signed with the Knicks in 2022 and honestly, not everyone thought it was the right move at the time. He was coming off a solid run with the Mavericks but he wasn’t considered a franchise cornerstone. Now look. He transformed the Knicks into an Eastern Conference powerhouse and himself into one of the league’s elite guards.
MSG is different and the proof is in the playoffs
There are iconic arenas around the league. The Garden is one of them. But Brunson’s point is that the building itself isn’t what makes it special during the postseason. It’s the people in the seats. The way they respond to every big shot. The way they get loud before something even happens. Players feed off that in a way that doesn’t happen in a lot of places.
The Knicks ended a 53-year championship drought with Brunson at the wheel. That puts him in the franchise’s history books permanently. And his comments about the Garden just reinforce what everyone who has been through a Knicks playoff game already knew: it’s not hype. It’s real.
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